Konoha's Wild Horse
by KialDeyung
Summary: When Ryoga's newest move lands them both in an alternate world, Ranma and his Eternal Rival find themselves quickly being pulled into the downward spiral leading up to the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Will the Heir to the Saotome School of Martial Arts be able to survive while simultaneously forging new friendships along the way?
1. Prologue

A/n: This is my first fanfic, please leave reviews, if you don't like my name because of the similarity to the other one, I'll change it, but you'd damn well better have something I can use instead! Prologue: Wild Horse Vs Lost Pig! Space-Time Break!?

"**Bakusai Tenketsu!**" Ranma's eyes widened at the sudden cry from below followed by the ground literally shattering under his feet. His reflexes kicked in as he worked overtime to catch all the rock pieces while simultaneously flipping through the air before landing on a familiar bandannaed head.

"Ranma what the hell are you doing here and who do you think you're standing on?!" Ryoga exclaimed before reaching up and hitting Ranma in the back of the knees causing him to fall and drop the rocks on top or Ryoga. He looked down at the pig-tailed boy, taking in his silk shirt and pants, "Wait am I in China?" Ranma's only response was a kick to the forehead knocking him through the air. Ryoga pivoted over using his iconic red umbrella vault onto his feet.

"No, you're not in China ya idiot, you're in Nerima," Ranma replied jumping to his feet and dusting off, "and I ain't got time for this, I'm late for school 'cause of you."

Ranma jumped up towards the nearest rooftop only to barely avoid a solidified bandanna.

"Well since I'm here, let me at least see if my training paid off!" Ryoga yelled from the ground behind him, "Ranma Saotome PREPARE TO DIE! _**Jikū Kyūkei!**_"

The last thing Ranma remembers seeing before he blacked out was Ryoga standing in the middle of a bubble of pure Ki energy

Akane Tendo was waiting at the gate of Furinkan High School for a certain pig-tailed boy, or maybe he was a girl at the moment you never knew with Ranma, especially when he was running late, when suddenly in the distance she saw one of the largest pillars of light she had ever seen in the middle of the city, it was almost like the Hiryu Shoten Ha except it was a solid pillar of ki reaching for the heavens.

"This is bad," she thought to herself, she could feel the wind and heat from the attack, at least she assumed it was an attack, and she just knew that Ranma was involved somehow, hopefully, he'd been able to avoid whatever it was that had done that. She quickly decided that being late just might be worth it for once.

Shampoo looked up at the sky, she had a bad feeling about the light pillar coming from the direction of her Àirén's learning center. "Bàituō, hǎo ba."

Ukyo Kuonji heard a gasp from inside her restaurant, she was taking a day off from school to focus on her business, "What is it Konatsu?" she asked the kunoichi. "Well my lady, It seems Ryoga has learned a new move, I felt both his and Ranma's ki flare up then both of them disappeared." Ukyo's eyes grew as she leaped over the counter, calling for Konatsu to watch the restaurant, she sprinted towards the still visible afterglow of the light pillar. "I'm coming Ranma Honey!"

As Akane neared the spot she could tell something big had happened recently the was a huge crater and a tunnel of some sort in the ground she looked around and her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted the spotted bandanna that could only belong to one person, embedded in the wall near the roof of a nearby building, or what used to be a building it was now missing two-thirds of its upper portion. Strangely there was no rubble in sight. She turned expectantly at the sound of footsteps only to be disappointed when she saw Ukyo approaching.

"Akane what happened here?" The chef asked expecting an answer, Akane was usually around when Ryoga and Ranma got into fights. The youngest Tendo simply shook her head.

"I don't know I just got here, I saw a huge ki beam reaching into the sky and was concerned," Akane said the worry apparent in her voice, ever since the fight with Saffron she had been a lot kinder to Ranma and less hostile towards everyone in general. Ukyo had liked the change, if not what it had taken to cause it. Akane pointed up towards the bandanna and Ukyo began to grow concerned.

"Konatsu mentioned that he felt their Ki but was hoping he was wrong considering what he said he felt…" Ukyo said examining the tunnel that Ryoga had made in the earth, " Can't find your way you make one huh?"

"What did Konatsu feel?" Akane asked realizing that the situation might be more urgent that she realized, she walked towards Ukyo also wanting to examine the hole in the ground.

Ukyo looked at Akane worriedly, "you're not gonna like this," she thought to herself getting ready to avoid any rubble caused by Akane's outburst when she heard the news. "Apparently both of their Ki presences disappeared after Ryoga did whatever he did," Ukyo looked around "But I don't see anything that signifies either of them were even really hurt, no scraps of clothes there's no way Ryoga could take Ranma that easily, and we know Ryouga wouldn't use a move that would kill Ranma, despite his insistence that he hates Ran-kun"

Akane looked around, blinking back her tears and smiled, " Yeah, I'm sure they just went somewhere else to fight, and Ryoga got them lost…"

End Of Prologue Ok I guess that's it for this chapter, I've already written the first two official chapters, but I probably won't upload them until I get at least one positive review on the chapter before the one being uploaded. 


	2. Chapter 1

_**A/n: I lied, can't help but upload it!**_

Chapter 1: Ninja A'hoy!? Lost Pig Found!

Ranma opened his eyes to find himself in the forest next to a lake, well herself having washed to the shore and subsequently been sundried, she sat up looking around for any landmarks she might recognize from the area around Nerima, but no, she was definitely in a forest she didn't know. "What did Ryoga do to me?" Ranma thought to herself, "Damn Pig-boy, can't even carry me to Doc Tofu's without getting lost in the woods."

She quickly did a check of her physical well being, well maybe he had made it to the doc's Ranma felt fine, or maybe the attack only made you faint. She then took stock of her surrounding, before noticing a backpack laying nearby which she recognized as Ryoga's. "Maybe he has something to eat in there." She thought as she headed towards it only to realize that there was a piglet rummaging through it.

"Ryoga!" she said, "Man what was that move anyway, knocked me out like a light you mind teaching it to me?" She stopped as she saw what the piglet had popped out of the bag with, a kettle and some kindling. "Sweet," she thought to herself as she quickly gathered some branches and light a fire for them. "You know what P-Chan, I'm not even mad atcha for this." She said flicking Ryoga in the snout hard enough to elicit an indignant snort from the pig. "You got me out of class for a day, maybe more if we play our cards right." Ranma reached for the water kettle only to have her senses warn her of approaching people. Playing it cool she poured the hot water into a cup much to Ryoga's chagrin and began to steep tea. Ranma simply held a finger up to her mouth and motioned to whispered: "There's someone coming don't want to freak out someone and have an angry mob of bumpkins chasing the 'witch' do ya?" Suddenly out of the tree's descended two ninja one in camo the other wearing a tattered shawl, both were obviously dangerous seeing as they had been moving quickly, probably from tree to tree, and each had a clawed gauntlet on one hand. Ranma took all of this in as the two ninjas appeared in front of her fire, leaping clear over Ranma from behind pivoting in mid-air, and looking the young redhead up and down.

"What have we here?" The camo-clad ninja said, "A lost little girl?"

"And her Piggy." The cloaked ninja pointed out, "She sure is pretty, huh Meizu, too bad we have a bridge builder to take out."

"And some punk leaf brats too." The ninja now identified as Meizu said.

Ranma looked at each of them, appraising their value as combatants. Each was stronger than Kuno at least when it came to Ki but they didn't look physically stronger than him. Either way no problem for Ranma, Girl or not.

"Oh, wow, ninja!" Ranma said playing up the lost girl act, "can you help me find a town?" doing her best to look the part of a damsel. She reached for the kettle getting ready to throw hot water on Ryoga when, suddenly, the claws on the gauntlet flashed out faster than a normal person could see and knocked the boiling water all over the ground and conveniently on Ryouga, who suddenly was standing, nude, in front of two astonished ninjas. Surprisingly they didn't react to surprised.

"Knew it was a trap, but who knew we were here?" The still unnamed ninja said putting some distance between himself and the boy standing in only a bandanna, "and who would be dumb enough to send two teenagers after the demon brothers?" He cackled as he sent a barrage of kunai flying at the young man, who wasn't particularly concerned with anything other than his lack of clothes. The cloaked ninja smirked under his mask, there was no way he could dodge from this range, especially considering he was just looking through his bag. He landed and went to survey his handy work only to be stunned at the sight of the short red-head holding his kunai by the blades between his fingers.

"What the hell? Meizu said to himself, he was shocked to see the girl move from a sitting position at least 8 feet away from where the boy was standing to behind him faster than either he or his brother could blink. "We might be in trouble," he thought to himself preparing to retreat, anyone that fast was not to be messed with, they must be jounin level at least. While two Chunin could theoretically take a jounin but not when you can't even track said jounins movements.

"Retreat?" Meizu looked towards Gozu, both asked the other simultaneously. With that, they both dropped smoke bombs and jumped away as quickly as possible.

"What was that about?" Ranma thought to herself looking at the wrecked kettle sadly before turning to the now clothed Ryoga "What do you think, where the heck are we?"

Ryouga looked around before looking at Ranma questioningly. He didn't really feel like explaining to Ranma that he was the last person to ask that.

"We should follow those guys," He finally said, "I'm sure they can lead us to a town or something." Ranma blinked surprised at the astute observation, "guess you learn how to find your way back to town when you're constantly getting lost."

"Sure, sounds good to me, they were up to no good anyway." Ranma said, heading towards where the mysterious ninjas had disappeared to, "Let's go then."

Ryoga gathered the rest of his stuff, shoving some bits and pieces into the sack. Jogging to catch up with Ranma's shorter form. Ranma took to the trees her lithe form easily leaping from limb to limb while Ryoga barreled through the underbrush.

"Ranma, are you sure they went this way?" Ryoga asked looking around at their surroundings. He was a decent tracker but those ninja hadn't left any trace of their passing, traveling by treetop no doubt. He was surprised that Ranma knew where he was going. Ranma simply kept jumping onward, not having heard him. Ryoga could tell Ranma knew though, the pigtailed girl was determined and definitely wouldn't risk getting them even more lost. Ryoga had confidence in her ability to find them again, she always found him when he ran off anyway.

The heir to the Saotome Branch of the "School of Indiscriminate Grappling" was focused on the feeling of the two ninjas ki, they were catching up and the "Demon Brothers seemed to have stopped moving. She looked around at their surroundings, making sure that there wasn't anything that was an obvious trap when she finally reached what looked like a road, Ryouga right behind her. The ki signatures of the brothers were directly ahead of them on the road, but there was no one there. She looked around still in the tree before deciding that it was better safe than sorry and just watching because she could feel a group of ki presences approaching from down the road. They watched in silence as a group of four, two were obviously ninja, one of which was a teen boy with raven hair, the other was a man with spiked white hair, came walking down the path, right past where the ki presences of the two were together, Ranma noticed a puddle of water, and so did the white haired ninja, but he paid it no mind. After they passed and walked a little farther the water seemed to bubble and out of it the unnamed demon brother's head appeared, before he rose farther to his full height, a barbed chain connected between the two gauntlets was then wrapped around the tall ninja's body as the Demon Brothers wrapped him up, he looked surprised, and Ranma blanched as the jerked their arms seemingly slicing the older ninja to pieces, Ranma sensed him reappearing somewhere nearby, and was surprised at how quickly he had moved, he was sure by what his senses told him that he was faster than the white-haired ninja.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" The young blonde boy wearing an orange jumpsuit exclaimed, letting Ranma know that the boy was also a ninja, despite his attire. When suddenly the Demon Brother's were upon him both were behind him in an instant, displaying impressive speed to most outside observers, Ranma watched as they advertised they're movements and noticed that the boy has plenty of time to dodge or move but then the boy froze.

"Crap," the lost boy thought to himself as he watched the young boy wearing orange he rushed forward from the trees as he had been preparing to do when the white-haired guy had died, but he noticed Ranma's lack of reaction and decided to wait it out, but seeing that kid, likely no older than 13 about to die he rushed into action, nearly at the same time as the other young boy, this one with black hair. Sasuke reached into his pouch pulling out a kunai and a shuriken throwing both simultaneously, the kunai pinned the chain to the tree while the shuriken pushed wedged it even deeper.

The Demon Brothers were surprised, this kid had skills, "It won't budge" Gozu exclaimed before detaching the chain only to receive a kick to the head from the young raven haired boy. It wasn't particularly powerful, but it was embarrassing. Suddenly he spotted the guy from before, the one who had been a pig on the edge of the woods coming towards them. "Shit! It's them Meizu, they followed us," he exclaimed before trying to disengage from his assault. Only to be kicked from behind by the girl who had literally appeared from nowhere. He was instantly dropped like a sack of potatoes, the power from that kick was way more than he expected from a girl her size, ninja or not. Ryouga turned towards the other ninja, Meizu who was still standing only to see he had been eliminated from the fight by the guy who had gotten killed earlier! Ryouga bit back his surprise and simply turned back towards Ranma who was checking on the little blonde guy.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The girl wearing pink exclaimed labeling her as another ninjaling and pulling Ranma's attention around to the master who had defeated the other ninja in one fell swoop. The pig-tailed boy noticed the look of confusion on Ryoga's face at the sudden reappearance of the children's sensei and came to the realization that Ryouga couldn't feel ki. "That explains how he can get lost inside a building," He thought, most people could innately feel the ki around them, but not focus that sense while martial artists could do the latter, Ryouga was likely completely blocked off from any ki not his own, not to mention the chi of nature. Ranma returned his attention to the man who had been called Kakashi, and realized that his initial realization was true, he was definitely faster than the guy, probably stronger too; but not much. Ryoga wasn't as fast but was definitely stronger. He sized up the potential enemy and figured he could take him as long as he couldn't pull that log trick to many times. He glanced over at the pile of logs on the ground and noticed the students(?) do the same. All of them seemed to realize that they were worried for no reason, and went on to check on the old man in the back of the group. Kakashi gave the two newcomers a casual once-over appreciating the figure of the young redhead, and silently appraising them both, decided that they weren't a threat to him or his students. Before turning to confront the bridge-builder. Ranma and Ryoga looked at each other and began to talk.

"Those guys were actually going to kill them?" Ryoga said astonished, "I didn't think there were people still out there who did that kind of thing, at least no like this." He looked at the two tied up ninja, seething with righteous anger, "Attacking children and old men for god's sake."

Ranma agreed but didn't feel the need to voice it. She was studying the two ninja on the ground realizing that her initial observation of the Demon Brother's had been incorrect and that they were at least as strong as Shampoo, and almost as skilled as well. His attention shifted to the group of four who were talking, mostly the two men, and tried to figure out how the white-haired guy rated, "Stronger than pops for sure, probably only just, I haven't seen him in action yet so I'm not sure how skilled he is but his ki is pretty high, however, she glanced at the young blonde boy, "has the most Ki I've ever sensed in a person, but it's different, almost angry without any focus or any of that anger coming from the boy himself."

The only one she didn't have a reading on other than the old guy, was the pink haired girl, she had decent Ki and it was much better focused than either of the other children but it wasn't near as high either. The raven-haired boy was decently skilled in hand to hand and a crack shot with those kunai but he lacked the strength to put behind it, and none of them were on the level that Ranma, in terms of skill, or Ryouga, strength wise was when they were that age. He was pulled from his thoughts as the man, Kakashi-sensei, approached them.

"Thank you for protecting my students," he said inclining his head, "If you don't mind me asking, which village are you from?" He looked at them his one eyes observing them expectantly. Ranma looked at Ryoga wondering if he would supply an answer to the question, it didn't come. The pig-tailed girl looked at him.

"The eyes of a warrior for sure," Kakashi thought to himself.

"Sensei, why does it matter where they're from they saved us after all," the pink-haired one said, "They're obviously friendly and they aren't from Konoha that's for sure."

Ranma thought back to all of the places he'd ever been to in all of Asia and some of Europe, he didn't know of any Konoha, not in Japan, and they were, of course, speaking fluent Japanese. Ranma suddenly had the feeling that he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"Because Sakura they are obviously ninja, and neither has a headband so I figured I'd try and discern where they were trained. I think I'd recognize a pair of mercenary nin with that amount of skill and I'd definitely know if one fit your particular description," he looked pointedly at Ryouga while giving Ranma's figure a sidelong glance.

"We're kinda lost, is there a village nearby?" Ryouga asked looking sheepish at admitting that he'd become lost, he put his hand on the back of his head and gave a large sheepish grin revealing his sharper than usual canine teeth.

Kakashi looked slightly surprised at the news and looked back over his shoulders at the still visible walls of Konoha.

"Yeah, actually, you can just see the walls from here," he said gesturing non committedly over his shoulder towards the Hidden Leaf Village, "but if you're headed there would you mind dropping these guys off with the ninja at the gate? Tell them I sent you and you shouldn't run into any problems." With that, he turned away to the stunned looks of his disciples and began to walk away beckoning them to come along.

"Well it is the least we can do," Ryouga said picking up both men on one shoulder and heading into the woods away from Konoha only to be stopped by Ranma who had to physically steer him in the right direction.

Naruto looked over his shoulder as the strange duo disappeared around a bend in the road looking questioningly at his sensei, he had been uncharacteristically quiet through the whole thing still shaken up from his near death experience. "Sensei, why'd you let them just go to the village like that?" He asked looking up into Kakashi's eye. He was walking with his hands clasped behind his head as he was wont to do.

Kakashi was glad that the kid was finally asking relevant questions, so he complied instead of dodging the question as he had done with Sakura's, "Well, I could tell that they weren't enemies, not that they were allies either, just good people passing by, and I can't see how having people that powerful around Konoha could be a bad thing." His final comment finally being able to pull Sasuke into the conversation.

"You think they were that strong?" He asked doubtfully, "I feel like you could handle them sensei." Looking over his shoulder to gauge Kakashi's reaction to his comment and as usual not being able to get a rise from the usually expressionless ninja, he just went back to watching where he was going. Naruto decided to pipe in at this point, "Yeah sensei, you're a jounin!" he said almost yelling at this point, "you can take almost anyone in the village couldn't you."

Kakashi chuckled and decided not to let them in on this bit of info at the moment, knowing there were unknown ninja out there as powerful as that was a wake-up call to him, he'd seen ninja that fast before, but something told him that the kid wasn't going all out and he also knew that there weren't any ninja alive that the leaf knew of that could move near that speed. Kakashi was just glad that they hadn't been hostile.

Ranma was amazed at the height of the walls surrounding what was obviously a very large city, not at all a village like Kakashi had suggested, she was amazed to find two heavily armed ninja on either side of the village gate, definitely wearing body armor which normal ninja didn't do. Upon seeing the duo approaching one began to intercept while the other's hand dropped to his side, reaching for shuriken should the need arise. Ranma waved and tried to look as non-threatening as she could, which wasn't hard considering she was a girl just over 142cm, however, the fact that Ryoga was carrying two full grown men tied up on one shoulder definitely didn't add any credibility to the harmless look she was currently trying to cultivate. As the man approached she took stock of him, he had a white cloth tied around his face, above his nose but under his eyes, and his companion who was next to the gate was wearing a hat with a headband sewn in, each of their plates had the same symbol as Kakashi's had, and as he approached it was obvious that they were assessing them as threats, and quickly dismissed Ranma as one, turning his attention to Ryoga the guard asked for their names and business within the village, he didn't mention the prisoners, and Ranma mentioned that they had been passing by when they had witnessed a fight between Kakashi, he used the name as suggested, and these two nin a ways from the village, Kakashi had asked them to escort the two back here to be imprisoned.

"That's how it happened!" Ranma said forcing her voice to sound even more upbeat than usual and asked if they wanted to take the Demon Brothers, motioned for Ryoga to hand them to her, and to the surprise of the guards he did. Ranma then, with no problems, offered the two men to the ninja in front of him, and frowned before setting them down on the ground to be hauled off. One of the ninja at the gate motioned for them to follow him, and then walked towards the center of town.

"Where are we going?" Ranma asked, checking to see if Ryouga was keeping up with them. She casually took in her surroundings, noting the electric poles, and sighing in relief, "at least it isn't so backwater as to not have electricity." She thought to herself looking at the strange architecture of the buildings and noticing several more ninja milling about and civilians acting like it was a normal thing. He looked at the tallest building around figuring that was where they were being led, which turned out to be true. As they approached the gate guard turned towards them and said. "To answer your question, I'm taking you to meet the Hokage, the leader of the village."

End Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 2

_**A/n: Ok so I guess I'm gonna be updating whenever I feel like it, I mean I'm feeling the love, already been fav/followed and I just posted yesterday so here you guys go! Ps. I am open to suggestions, I am gonna go with my interpretations for the strength of the cast, so (V);,,;(V) and I also know where I am going in terms of plot for several chapters at least, I usually just follow my fingers lead. Any comments or concerns? Wanna have an OC appear? Comments and Reviews are appreciated **_

Chapter 2: Ninja World!? Sarutobi's Test!

"I'm taking you to meet the Hokage, the leader of the village." the gate guard said smiling at the young woman in front of him, "He'll thank you for your help, and likely give you some sort of reward for capturing the Demon Brothers." Ranma's smile widened at the mention of a reward, looking at the door in front of her, she wondered what the leader of this ninja village would be like, probably someone strong if the ki he was feeling from the other side of the door was anything to go by. Ranma nodded her head, looking towards the pig boy who had landed them here,

"Damn it P-chan this is all your fault, stupid new attack landing us who knows where." She thought sourly to herself before following the ninja through the door, and coming face to face with an elderly man who was radiating ki power.

"He's insanely strong!" Ranma thought to himself surprised, he quickly gave the man an appraising look realizing that he was a powerful warrior with his first glance he also noticed how lithe the man was, "Probably has quite a bit of speed too." Ranma bowed respectfully, to the man, who was obviously a master martial artist.

"Hello there Kotetsu, what brings you here?" the Hokage asked looking at the man who he had entrusted the guarding of the gate unto. He then gave Ranma and Ryoga a look, his eyes widening as he felt their Chakra Levels. Both had very strange feeling chakra but a massive reserve of it, it was the strangest feeling he'd ever gotten from anyone before. He looked at the young woman who had bowed respectfully to him then to the young man, who looked like he was lost. "How can I help you today?" He asked the young lady in front of him.

"Well, Mr. Hokage-Sama, we brought two ninja to your guards a little while ago, and Mr. Kotetsu here mentioned something about a reward." She finally said. Sarutobi looked her in the eyes gauging the sincerity of her politeness, before smiling and saying "I'm sure that could be arranged, however, I'd like to hear the story of how you ended up here, I'm sure it is an interesting one."

Ranma looked at the Hokage, smiled, turned to Ryoga and said: "Why dontcha fill him in P-chan?" Smirking Ranma watched for Ryoga's reaction to Akane's (literal) pet name for him.

Ryoga huffed "Who're you calling P-chan?!" Indignantly he turned to the Hokage, clearing his throat he began to recount his side of the story.

"It all started almost a week ago," he recounted, "I had been training in the shadow of Mount Hotakadake when I was approached by a man who claimed to be a master of a technique, he offered to teach it to me in return for some food, he was obviously starving and I had recently gathered a surplus of food so I accepted his proposal, after he had eaten we started the training. He began by showing me the proper stance, I'm not gonna go into details about it, but it was a really strong technique. It literally made things disappear. It took me several days to master it and when I finally did I rushed to find my rival," Ryoga gestured at Ranma," To see how effective it would be on him." The Hokage blinked when Ryoga called the girl, now identified as Ranma, him, but paid it little mind, Ryoga continued his tale. "It took me a couple of days of tunneling before I happened to come up where Ranma was, I used the move, called the Jikū Kyūkei, and I'm not sure what happened after that, I know my ki did this weird thing then suddenly I woke up next to a pond." The Hokage had questions, of course, he looked the boy up and down realizing that when he had said ki, he had indeed meant ki, the physical side of chakra, and that the reason that he was getting such a strange feeling from the boys chakra was specifically because he had large ki reserves but very little spiritual energy the other component of Chakra.

"I see, well the name Space-Time Break implies that you might have been transported somewhere. Maybe if I was to show you a map you'd be able to identify where you were from. However, I have my doubts considering you mentioned a name "Japan" and a mountain, neither of which I have heard of." The Hokage paused rummaging around his desk for a map to unfurl, "Perhaps you can demonstrate this technique for me and we will be able to determine if it could be used to send you back." Ryoga smiled wondering why he hadn't thought of that before. He thanked the Hokage before turning to Ranma but stopped when the Hokage continued to speak.

"But I can't allow two strangers to wander around the village without showing the proper hospitality, you will be my guests. But we are a working village and seeing as you are strangers you will need money. You mentioned that you were training in the mountains, am I to assume that you have some sort of martial training?" Sarutobi finished his statements, gauging their reactions to what he had just said, the boy, still unnamed aside from the obvious jab from the girl "P-chan," simply nodded his head humbly as if he was used to the kindness of strangers helping him through life, and the girl "Ranma," was looking slightly annoyed but overall nonplussed by the news. "I would like to ask that you two follow me to the training area so that I may assess your skills, I am Sarutobi, Hokage of this village, may I ask you your names?"

"Ranma Saotome, the heir to the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts and this", she gestured over her shoulders, "is Ryoga Hibiki, my Rival and an idiot who will get lost looking for the bathroom." Ryoga made an indignant face and began to stutter before weakly mumbling "I am not an idiot."

Sarutobi watched all of this in silent amusement, wondering if he was making the right decision, in these times the village was relatively peaceful, but if he could indoctrinate these two into his force he would be up two people who were definitely stronger than your average Jounin, which was saying something.

"Now if you two will follow me, I will show you to the training area, however, I will ask you two to wait while I summon some of the ninja from the academy to assess your skills with not only Taijutsu but Ninjutsu and see if you have any skills when it comes to anything else of value." Ranma smiled, she was beginning to like the sound of this place, when it came to ninjutsu she had already mastered all eighteen of the bujutsu required to become a grandmaster of the Togakure Ryu plus she was also extensively trained in the other eight Ryu schools as well, thanks to her father's dedication to the arts she had learned all of it young. When it came to Taijutsu she knew over Twenty-Five different forms and was an officially recognized black belt in most. Ranma was getting pumped at the prospect of a good fight, plus she'd probably get a few compliments to boot, Ryoga, on the other hand, was looking around nervously hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself in front of some cute girl who just happened to be around. When it came to Taijutsu he was competently self-taught, he had taken what he learned from Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and combined it with his own strength and dexterity, he used his umbrella like a club and his bandannas were deadly weapons sharp enough to cut a rope, and strong enough to dent steel and shatter concrete, but he'd never done anything with ninjutsu. He did have several handy survival skills though. Ryoga looked up to find that he'd already lost his way, he was definitely still in the right building as he could hear the sound of Ranma's girl voice up ahead.

"Hey, where'd you go!" he yelled down the hallway, he hated that he could get lost at the drop of a hat, it made him feel helpless. Ranma's head popped up from around the corner, and Ryoga's eyes lit up as he ran towards him. Despite his burning hatred for Ranma over the Jusenkyo debacle, he was still a pretty good guy. "God Ranma, don't walk off without me like that!"

Ranma merely rolled her eyes, "Just like in middle school," she thought to herself, "me leading you around like your a lost puppy… or piggy in your case." She snickered to herself wondering what would've happened if he hadn't followed Ranma to Jusenkyo over the bread feud. "Life would've definitely been different, I'd be rival-less, and have one less friend!"

Ranma finally caught up to Sarutobi, Ryoga in tow. They stopped in front of a large set of doors leading to a courtyard, and they crossed it heading towards the what the Hokage had called the Ninja Academy, which Ranma thought was awesome, and where they would be tested to see if they could contribute to the village in the way of combat. Ranma felt a mounting feeling of excitement in her gut, always pumped to fight, she glanced at Ryoga expecting him to be fidgety like he usually was when he was waiting for something. He didn't seem to be in any sort of mood, slightly sulky but that was just how Ryoga was. They finally reached the building that they would be evaluated in, by evaluation Ranma figured he meant threat assessment, figuring out how many of their guys it would take to put them down if need be, that was what he'd do if he was a ninja leader anyway. They entered a large room, it was relatively well lit and had a lot of space, it was obviously an arena, and had a viewer area where several ninja were standing. Ranma took all of this in in the instant it took for her eyes to adjust to the slight difference in light level. She then focused on the instructors in front of them, one was a man with a giant shuriken on his back, he had a scar across the bridge of his nose and looked like he'd had better days if the bandage around his chest was anything to go by, the other two ninja, one a kunoichi with piercing red eyes, and a red and white battle dress on conversing with a tall ninja who had a green jumpsuit under a ballistic vest, and orange leg warmers on, both of whom had higher Ki readings than the other man, and less than the Hokage, who now that Ranma had several references to go by, was obviously stronger than the rest of the ninja, the biggest surprise was when he realized that the goofy looking green ninja was stronger than any of the rest she'd met sans Hokage, who Ranma realized could probably take all three of the other ninja on at the same time.

The Hokage came to a stop in front of the three ninja who all bowed respectfully to him before the man with the scar looked at the Hokage and said: "Lord Third, if I may ask why have we been summoned here?"

To which the third Hokage simply smiled and motioned towards Ranma and Ryoga while filling the others in on the situation, and how he wished to get a grasp on what type of skills the pair had. Sarutobi then turned to Ranma and Ryoga and began to introduce the three behind him, "This is Might Guy," he motioned to the Tall, Green-clad ninja with a bowl cut, "Kurenai Yūhi," the woman, "and Iruka Umino" the scared man. All three bowed respectfully, a gesture which Ranma and Ryoga both returned.

"Ranma Saotome and this is P-Chan," Ranma said enthusiastically before being hit over the head by Ryoga's umbrella which he had been concealing in his sleeve. "Damn you Ranma, Who're you calling P-chan!" Ryoga practically shouted at the red-head, "My name is Ryoga Hibiki!," he said to the three people standing in front of him. "Try to remember that better than my "Friend" here," he said sliding his umbrella back up his sleeve.

All of them looked taken aback at the harsh treatment of his supposed friend but not so much as to say anything about it, all of them could tell that both of the teens in front of them were rather powerful people and that if the third wanted them to personally evaluate their skills there was a chance that they would be hanging around the village for a little while at least. Guy gave each of them an appraising look, he could tell that they were both physically on the level, and could definitely carry the fire of youth like a torch through the night and that both of them were shining pillars of what he wanted his students to aspire to be. Kurenai was giving both of them an appraising look, and she just knew that the chakra reading she was getting from the both of them was spectacularly skewed towards the more Physical aspect of chakra, she immediately knew neither of them could perform Jutsu, however, the level of power she was sensing made it plain that they had a way to exercise their abilities, she also doubted they would be able to handle a genjustu of any shape form or fashion. Iruka was more interested in their personal lives, what had caused two non-ninja to travel to Konoha, and how had they managed to gain the Hokage's attention so quickly?

Finally, the sizing up was brought to an end as first impressions were allowed to sink in, Sarutobi then stood in front of them all, and said "So, shall we begin?" before motioning for Guy to step forward, "I would like for you to test each of their Taijustu skills, and I think it would be beneficial to you if you didn't hold back." Guy looked at the Hokage questioningly, before hardening his resolve, if the Hokage thought it was best to not pull his punches who was he to question his wisdom, he was, however, the only one of the assembled ninja who followed this train of thought as two voices simultaneously spoke up in objection, Kurenai, and and Iruka both looked from Guy to the Hokage and voiced their doubt as to the wisdom of sending two teens against Guy sensei in a no holds barred match. Sarutobi simply waved away their concerns before turning to Ranma, "I assume you would be offended if I suggest anything other than he not hold back?"

Ranma laughed, "How'd you figure me out so fast old man?" She then turned to the Green ninja with the pretentious name, "and who said we'd be going at'cha together?" she asked cockily, a bit of snark in her voice before looking at Kurenai, "I'm sure it'd only take pig-boy here to handle ya, but since this is a test match an all I'll try not to go too overboard, wouldn't want to hurt nobody."

Kurenai scoffed slightly looking at Guy sensei who hadn't changed his stance, refusing to be stirred by the girl's mocking tone, she simply smirked getting ready to enjoy watching her get knocked down a peg or two. She didn't care what kind of chakra the girl had, she hadn't met a ninja who was on the same level as might guy in terms of Taijutsu before, especially not some girl just out of her childhood. She didn't know why but for some reason the combination of the girl's attitude, voice and looks had infuriated her to no end, which was surprising for the usually level headed Kurenai. Iruka for his part was keeping his calm with which was a token from his time with the Rambunctious Blond ninja he had helped to train. Ranma still sitting smugly looked at Ryoga, and smirked at Guy, she knew that Ryoga could take him, Ryoga was a variable tank, he could take anything that was thrown at him, especially if this guy's looks translated to his fighting skills, which he doubted because the Hokage had specifically chosen the ninja for his hand to hand skills. Ranma was aware that she shouldn't sound so cocky especially when the people hadn't done anything to offend him, however, they just assumed that some green clad ninja was a match for both of them simultaneously, it ground her gears to no end.

Guy was getting pumped, he hadn't had an opponent that he felt like he could go all out against in a while and the Hokage had just given two people his stamp of approval, however, he had one question for the Hokage about a certain stop he could pull out, which he was still hesitant to do. He approached Sarutobi, and leaned in, "What about the gate's sensei?" The Hokage simply smiled gently, "I will leave that up to you." Guy nodded, he could feel the fires of youth raging within him, he took a flying leap over the ledge, landing in the arena below him. He then stood in the middle of the ring watching the boy Ryoga follow suit, he landed roughly thirty feet away from Guy's position. Ryoga took his backpack and threw it up to Ranma before turning to the tall ninja. He was ready to fight, the ninja was in a battle stance, his legs spread and slightly bent knees, one arm behind his back and the other hand out palm upturned slightly turned up. He looked at Ryoga before motioning for Ryoga to come at him. Ryoga smiled and decided to open up with something basic. The lost boy rushed forward aiming a kick at Guy's head, which he easily ducked under, and followed up with a downward strike which would've connected had Guy not used Ryoga's lack of balance against him, sweeping his legs out from under him. Ryoga grunted, springboarding over Guy using some of his Rhythmic Gymnastics skills. He jabbed at Guy's chest which Guy tried to backpedal out of, only to be hit by an umbrella which weighed the same as a large horse. Guy gasped as he was carried backward by the force of the blow, using the momentum he did several backflips out of easy range, watching for Ryoga's pursuit.

Ryoga was getting pumped as the warm up proceeded. He could tell the guy was fast, not as fast as Ranma, but still faster than himself, he figured he gauge his strength, hopefully, the guy would be a glass cannon and couldn't take a hit; he was disappointed when the hit he gave was taken like it was just normal everyday blow. He decided to change his tactics up, he reached for his Bandannas and began hurling rods of hardened fabric at the tall man, who pulled out a kunai to block the strange projectiles only to have the kunai knocked from his hand by the bandanna. His eyes widened as he went back on the defensive, dodging **most** of the rods being hurled at him, the ones that connected did considerable damage and could've conceivably broken another ninja's bone even a jounin, however, Guy wasn't your average ninja and he was able to take the hits simply wincing in pain as he felt his battle spirit flaring up. Ryoga rushed forward once again, swinging wide with his fist, which Guy dodged, keeping enough distance between himself and Ryoga to avoid the umbrella should it emerge. Ryoga realized the straightforward tactic wasn't panning out and decided to go the roundabout way, extending his index finger jumped up into the air and brought hit down, mere inches in front of his opponents face, driving it full force into the ground, Guy seeking to take advantage of the seeming miss swung his leg back preparing for a devastating roundhouse kick, only to hear a shout "Bakusai Tenketsu!" as the ground literally exploded beneath them, completely unprepared the green ninja took the brunt of the explosion to his lower body, and once again he was glad he had put so many hours into endurance training as his bodies natural durability saved him from a possibly debilitating injury. He jumped out of the dust cloud formed by the explosion and looked down noting the double-edged sword that was the attack.

"He was in the center of that, no way he's not any worse for wear after that." he thought to himself only to see several bandannas flying out of the cloud directly at him, he swiftly blocked all of the ones which would have hit him, knocking them out of the air before landing forty feet away from the settling dust. He looked around searching for his opponent before his senses picked up the sound of flapping fabric, he looked up to see a silhouette bearing down on him, umbrella outstretched, he jumped out of the way before quickly storming forward pressing the speed advantage from all sides. He used a barrage of blows to overwhelm Ryoga's guard and brought his full strength to bear on a single punch to the mid-section, causing a shockwave to roll outward, and Ryoga to slide backward several yards. Kurenai smirked and looked over towards the young woman who had so casually dismissed the notion that Guy was a match for either of them, only to see her smiling too, she quickly looked back at the ring to see that Guy had also been thrown backward, and looked to Ryoga's outstretched fist, realizing he had timed it for when guy was most distracted, the attack itself. Both looked at each other and Ryoga smiled widely as Guy dropped to one knee holding his gut. Ryoga then rubbed the side of his head and began to roll his shoulder before turning to look at the Hokage, who finally said, "Have you been able to gauge his abilities?" Guy. who was now standing again nodded his head, and as if he hadn't taken any damage at all replied enthusiastically to the affirmative.

"I can tell that his veins flow with the powers of youth!" the tall ninja exclaimed pumping his fist in the air before smiling, his teeth catching the light just right causing a flash, "Is it the young ladies turn?" Ranma grimaced at being called a young lady, regardless of appearance she was still a he, but his grimace was misinterpreted by the scared man, Iruka, who said "I understand if you're hesitant to fight him after seeing such a display, we can just assume that your on the same level as your friend and skip the fight if you wish."

Ranma simply laughed, "If pig-boy can take him, I can definitely take him, I am the best after all!" She looked him dead in the eyes before simply vanishing and reappearing in the ring not twenty feet from Might Guy. His eyes widened at the display of speed before he smiled widely, this was going to be interesting, he hadn't been able to track her movement, and if she had any strength to back it up she would definitely be a tough opponent. Ranma simply looked up to see if the show of speed had elicited a reaction from anyone watching, and could tell that the showing off had had the desired effect. Iruka was staring mouth-agape at the spot she had been standing, before looking to where she was now and back again. He hadn't seen that kind of speed since Lord Fourth and hadn't expected to ever see it again. Ranma then turned to Guy before dropping into the stance associated with Aikido, Ranma knew he had power, and was prepared to use that power against his opponent. He then taunted Guy buy motioning for him to come at her, standing her ground she caught Guys opening kick, pulling him into a Judo throw before following up on her advantage with a barrage of kicks and punches pulled from Muay Thai. Her change in style was noted by Guy who was working overtime to counter her speed, only the occasional hit slipped through his guard and none of them were as strong as Ryoga's but they were aimed to not beat him straight out but wear his defense down, when suddenly his guard was forcefully broke by a single punch by the diminutive girl, he blanched, wondering where she had hidden the power when he realized that she hadn't she had simply hit him multiple time at once. He was once again surprised by her speed, and sick of taking the defensive, he broke the first gate. His body blurred as he suddenly closed in on Ranma at a blinding speed, Ranma for her part wasn't taken as off guard as she could've been, she simply pushed even more speed out, staying ahead of the glowing ninja, to the surprise of the audience. She backflipped over him when he suddenly pivoted pulling a full one-eighty and punched as hard as he could, Ranma barely blocked it, surprised by the strength behind the blow.

"He's almost as strong as Ryoga!" she thought, weaving around and dodging his attacks, "but he's way stronger!" She somersaulted away from him before dropping below him, sweeping his legs out from under him, and bringing her elbow down hard on her midsection. "**Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken!**" Ranma yelled, her fists suddenly blurring as she peppered the ninja below her with thousands of punches, the speed at which she attacked was impossible to follow, and the onlookers were stunned, finally, the assault ended, and to Ranma's surprise Guy stood up, looking normal again, and bowed to her. Ranma blanched, looking him over, you couldn't even tell that he'd been fighting it was ridiculous, she was also angry, he made it look like the beating he'd just endured was a casual thing, she knew she was stronger than him, but here he was no worse for wear, not that she was in bad shape either, he hadn't connected with any hits the entire time, but still it made her feel as if she had broken out the Chestnut Fist for nothing.

"How was it, Guy?" The Hokage asked from the balcony overlooking the area, he knew that guy had been outclassed from the instant the girl had displayed her speed. He hadn't expected her to be able to beat the first gate, however. He was simply shocked at the speed and strength displayed by the two. Ranma Saotome and Ryoga Hibiki were definitely Jounin level combatants, now if they have ninjutsu as well, or can counter it at least, then we'll be in business. He turned to Ryoga and asked if he was prepared to go on to the next test, to which Ryoga nodded. He then gestured towards Iruka who jumped down into the ring, passing Guy on his way up, and stood in front of Ranma who was giving the man a questioning look.

"I am here to test your knowledge of ninjutsu," Iruka said looking from Ranma to Ryoga, who had just arrived, "Allow me to demonstrate," he then made a series of intricate hand motions before bringing his fingers together and causing a flaming blade to arc out from his body into the air. "That was a fire jutsu, can either of you do anything similar?" Ryoka laughed and nodded before turning and jumping back several feet. "Watch this!" He then brought his hands together and thrust them forward, "**Shishi** **Höködan!**" he yelled launching a ball of compressed ki out of his hands, which collided with the wall, creating a hole to the outside, "oops…" he said looking abashed. Ranma simply stared, wondering how the other man had done the fire thing, he understood manifesting ki, but flames out of thin air were bizarre. The pigtailed girl then said "Yeah, I can do something similar," but made no move to demonstrate, "Let's just say it's the same as his." To which Iruka nodded and looked up at the Hokage questioningly. He wasn't sure what else to do, and if the destruction wrought by the move the young man had used was anything to go by, they were both extremely skilled in strong, if strange, forms of ninjutsu. Finally, the Hokage gestured for Kurenai to step forward, and after she did, he then gave her the same instruction that he had given Guy. She was surprised, but simply smirked, now to put the brat in her place. She jumped over the rail and then, Ranma began to somersault through the air, and to Ryoga's amusement, seemed to be in pain.

Ranma was confused, one second she was watching the Kunoichi walk towards them the next she had been tagged by some Kunai which she hadn't been able to sense. She was amazed at the number of Kunai coming at her from all angles and blurred as she tried to catch or dodge them, and then she realized, all things give off Chi, except living things which have Ki, Ranma wasn't sensing Chi from any of the Kunai because they weren't there, it was just like the speed illusion from Cologne, except it was an actual illusion! Ranma suddenly stopped as several kunai imbedded themselves in her, and nothing happened. The illusion was broken, and Ranma saw Ryoga standing there laughing at her and Kurenai looking baffled. She looked around before disappearing and burying her fist into Ryoga's stomach, "And just who're you laughing at?" She yelled at him, he simply returned the favor, burying his fist in her gut, "Whaddya think, the stupid monkey girl fighting the air," he then took a step back, standing straight, and looking at the Hokage, "So what's the verdict?" He asked. The Hokage looked to Kurenai who nodded, "It would seem you passed with flying colors."

Ranma smiled smugly, "Now what else did ya expect?" She turned towards Ryoga, "since we're in an arena, how 'bout we go a round?"

Ryoga smirked before laughing, "You read my mind."

End of Chapter 2


	4. Chapter 3

_**A/n: I guess I'll reply to reviews here... **_

_**Ashe\- All Ranma characters are end of series, so Ranma is around 18, I'm assuming that Ryoga is older by a couple of months? We are never told who is older, we know they're the same ageish because they were in the same middle school, and Naruto and co. are heading to the land of waves for the Zabuza encounter... Hope that answers your question.**_

_**Crevante\- My pronoun usage for Ranma will be to the best of my abilities, if I slip up that's my bad, but come on it's Ranma how often do people even try to do it right, I had to go back through chapter one and two to fix all of the 'he's' I slipped in.**_

_**As for the concerns about a lack of conflict I have some coming, I get it, the ninja are too trusting and stuff, but I feel like they have people coming in occasionally to turn in ninja. Plus they were escorted to the Hokage's place by a ninja, and still haven't left his side, if they were threats, they wouldn't 'thesibly' be able to beat the strongest ninja in the village.**_

_**And here is a preemptive strike, I personally think that the curse affects their brains too, so they will both think like whichever form they were in, it's a curse after all.**_

_**Ok, so I know where it's going for know up to at least the Chunin Exam. If anyone wants to throw out an idea or two I'm open to suggestions.**_

_**Anyone got a problem with Wednesday updates? Don't be afraid to let me know, however you will be ignored on this issue, but still let me know.**_

Chapter 3: Clash of Wills! Secrets Exposed!

Ranma stood staring at her rival, all eyes on the pair. She already knew this would be a harder fight than she'd had since she got here, harder even than when she had last fought against Ryoga seriously, both combatants were on edge, not knowing where they were, and were worried about their friends and family.

"Wonder what Akane's up to?" Ranma thought briefly before, without warning, launching herself at Ryoga, covering the space separating the two instantly. She threw out a flurry of attacks, mostly from above, hammering into Ryoga's impossibly strong skin with the **Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken**. Ryoga winced as he felt the force of the compounded blows hitting his sternum almost simultaneously, "**Bakusai Tenketsu!**"

The ground exploded upward, bits of concrete tearing into Ranma's shirt, leaving little welts where they collided with her skin. She quickly disengaged, backpedaling away from the veritable tank. Ranma took stock of her surroundings, trying to figure out a landscape advantage, seeing none she quickly dodged the bandannas that had been hurled at her, plucking one out of the air before launching it back at her opponent. Ryoga ducked under it before charging forward, bringing all of his speed to bear, which was considerably more than any of the gathered ninja had expected from him considering how he'd been fighting up until this point.

'Soatome stands still so I can hit you!" Ryoga said swinging his fists at Ranma, unable to connect, "I swear to god Ranma, afraid you'll get hurt?" He taunted.

Ranma smirked and stopped allowing the fist to connect and being flung backward approaching the wall at an outrageous speed, she quickly flipped around in the air, before using the momentum from his flight to bounce back at Ryoga moving even faster than she'd been before.

"Howdya like this!?" Ranma bellowed swinging with all of the force that the momentum could afford her, which was a lot. Surprisingly Ryoga stepped into the punch, meeting Ranma's fist with his own, the resultant shock wave was enough to cause a crater in the floor, large enough to rupture the pipeline directly below them, bringing their spar to an abrupt end.

Sarutobi looked on in amusement as, through some sort of ninjutsu, the tall boy suddenly took on the form of a small black pig, oddly his clothes crumpled to the floor which the Hokage wasn't used to seeing from ninjutsu, despite his amusement, he could tell this destruction was just the tip of the iceberg for the power these two could unleash. He sighed, before speaking up, "Follow me back to my office, we will see about housing the both of you."

Ranma looked up at the Hokage, ringing out her soaked shirt, and nodded before scooping up P-chan and shoving Ryoga's clothes into his pack. She jumped up onto the observation platform to see the two Jounin and the one Chunin talking amongst themselves. She ignored them, following behind the Hokage who was muttering something along the lines of repair cost and paperwork. Ranma looked over her shoulder observing the damage they'd done in the brief time they'd been there. "And I didn't even get ta cut loose," she scoffed, "Even in a world full of ninjas I'm the best," Her chest puffed up filling herself with pride. She made sure to stay close behind the Hokage, not wanting to get to lost in the maze of rooms, before they exited the large building and made their way back across town. Ranma took stock of his surroundings, noticing the townspeople's reactions to the Hokage, most of them looked respectful, a few were indifferent, and a few even approached and offered kind greetings. The walk back to the Hokage's tower was rather uneventful, except when a group of young girls caught sight of Ranma, holding P-chan in her arms, and swiftly surrounded the diminutive redhead, it took the Hokage interjecting to free the duo from the crowd which had gathered and Ranma was visibly frazzled, and seemed to be agitated, although whether it was at the pig or the people the Hokage couldn't tell.

After they had arrived in his office, Sarutobi turned and looked pointedly at the Pig. "You can end the Jutsu now," he said, receiving a puzzled look form the girl, and a pig's equivalent from the pig, "Turn back into a person."

"Ohh!" Ranma exclaimed, "Ya got any hot water?" to which Sarutobi gave a puzzled look, before asking "Of course, but why would you need…" He was interrupted by Ranma, who had put P-chan down on the chair next to him, and began to rummage through the pack, "I'll explain it all to ya, but I'd rather it not leave this room."

Sarutobi simply sighed before calling to his aid asking for hot water. "I expect this will be an interesting tale?"

Ranma simply smirked, "you have no idea old man," She settled into her seat preparing for a long story, "You see it all started several years ago, in China…." After several minutes of exposition and backstory _**(A/n: I'm not gonna type out the entire backstory for two known characters, even if it is Naruto, the flashback anime.) **_interrupted only by an author's note and an assistant bringing in a kettle full of steaming water, Ranma finished her tale, before grabbing the kettle and pouring it onto the pig sitting next to him. Then turning the spout on herself, changing in front of Sarutobi's eyes into a slightly taller, broader, and definitely more masculine person. He could tell it was the same person, the clothes and hair were a dead give away.

"A curse?" Sarutobi thought to himself, lightly rubbing his chin, "I have several questions" he said looking between the two men standing in front of him.

"Shoot," Ranma said, looking visibly more comfortable now that he was back to "Normal" or what passed for normal around him.

"Ok, Firstly, do your physical abilities change between form?" He looked at Ranma, if his change in physique was anything to go by the man was even more of a force to be reckoned with, "Secondly, any hot or cold water triggers this curse?" He didn't know what to make of any of it, he did know that Jiraiya would have to be warned lest he be bodily harmed, "And thirdly how powerful are you both?"

Ranma smirked at the last question, he knew he'd made an impression on the four who had watched Ryouga and his exhibition match, " No, not for me, my two forms are physically just as strong as one another, and I can tell you that the only difference between the two is that my reach is definitely shortened quite a bit in my female form." He sat thinking about the second question, "Yeah, no matter what it always ends up causing a change, I'm not sure what the line is, but if it leans even slightly towards cold water I get turned into a girl." He finally smiled, "And for your third question, I've had mountains dropped on me and walked away. I killed a Phoenix after all." It wasn't strictly true, he caused a phoenix to revert back to its egg, but you know a tornado through the chest is usually considered a kill.

The Hokage blanched images of giant Chakra beast filled his mind, stronger even than the Toads that Jiraiya used. He bowed his head at the young man before turning towards Ryoga, "And you young man?"

Ryoga looked over at Ranma smirking, "I'm tougher than Ranma, and Physically stronger even if he's got more on the training side of things. We'd be poor rivals if I wasn't at least able to win every other match now wouldn't we?" He pondered the second question for a moment, "And I'd have to say that I'm just as durable and strong as a Pig, but I'm way faster, little body and lots of muscle after all." He didn't even try to answer the third question, he'd never maxed out his strength before, and he'd only met one person stronger than him, that bastard that traveled with the Dragon Bastard Herb. "Oh yeah, don't forget the dragon," Ryoga said, "He's the one that destroyed the mountain isn't he? It's been a few years since then, he wasn't as strong as Lord Saffron was he?"

Sarutobi blanched, "Dragon?" he asked trying his best to hide his astonishment, "You mean a real dragon?" He was amazed, these two boys had gone through some amazing things if their tale was to be beleived, and he could see the strength of the two and it was plausible. "Now I beleive the reason I brought the both of you into my office this time was to find you somewhere to stay, there are several apartment buildings in town, and the village would be willing to put you up for a time."

"What's the catch?" Ranma interjected, casually tugging at his pigtail, "I mean it's not like most people would be willing to invite two strangers into their village and offer to let them stay free of charge." Ryoga blanched at Ranma's rudeness and began to stammer an apology before being silenced by the Hokage's waving away of his concerns.

"The catch, as you put it, is that we would monitor your activity, and if anything were to happen, expect you to help protect the village from any threat that may arise," The Hokage said amiably, fully expecting the youth to agree to his terms, they were quite generous after all, and usually he would have to call a meeting and make sure all of his advisors were ok with it first.

"No deal," Ranma said, "I mean I appreciate it and all but I don't want to be stuck in some village, helping out if something popped up, I want to explore, get in some fights, learn something new."

Ryoga nodded despite himself, he would just as happiley accepted and not have to worry about getting as lost but he knew he'd just get lost anyway, "I hate to say this, but I with Ranma, If he's gonna go out and about and explore, I'll be damned if I get left behind."

The Hokage listened, thinking, before finally nodding his head, "I understand your concerns and you are, of course, free to leave the village at your leisure, however, I think I might have a solution that will suit your wants and also benefit the village greatly." He turned to gaze out the window, "but I can't promise you anything as of yet, I would have to gather my advisors and get their opinions on the matter first." He turned back to Ranma and Ryoga, taking stock of the two yong men in front of him before continuing, "My next meeting is scheduled for the day after tomorrow, I hope you'll agree to stay until then."

Ranma glanced at Ryoga, "I don't know about P-chan over here, but I can keep myself from getting lost until then," He then let loose with a large grin as his stomach growled loudly, "Especially if you're agreein ta feed me."

Walking towards the door the Hokage gestured for the two of them to follow him, "I understand that you helped one of our Jounin and his students capture a couple of unsavory ninja not far from the village," he said as they walked along the hallway towards the entrance of the building, "as reparation for this deed, I offer both of you monetary compensation, he then began to walk towards a building besides his office. This is the mission office, normally we assign missions based on the rank of the ninja, and how dangerous the mission is. Considering both of the ninja you took down were known assassins, and were Chunin the rank would be between A and B, A to be safe, we would dispatch a team of 3 chunin or perhaps a Jounin or Two to handle them. If it had been requested by a client it would have cost quite a bit of money, around _1,104,950 __ryō_which is enough for about a months worth of food, considering there were three parties involved, we will be splitting that evenly between you," he did a little bit of math on a sheet of paper, "So _368,316_ for you, Ryoga and Kakashi respectively." He portioned out the money, and smiled. That should hold you for a week or so, Iruka will be here shortly to escort you to your apartments, and give you a tour of the village."

Ranma looked at the odd bills he'd been handed, before shrugging and depositing them into his pocket. He looked around, taking stock of his surrounding when his stomach let out a large rumble. "Better be very shortly," he thought to himself, trying to remeber which ninja was Iruka, before spotting the scarred man approaching from the direction of the large building which was labeled Academy. He ignored the man, trying to seem as indiferent as possible as he approached.

"Hello Ryoga-kun, where is Ranma-chan?" He asked politely, noticing the young man's chuckle and realizing that Ryoga had a guest he turned and bowed, introducing himself only to be cut off by the other persons scoff.

"I already know who you are," Ranma almost growled, he didn't like that he had been referred to as Ranma-chan, "and I'd appreciate it if you could just hurry up and show us around." Ranma could tell he wouldn't be getting along with Iruka the man was too much of a stiff, and he wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be some sort of truant officer or teacher or something. He didn't tend to get along with teachers, always trying to tell you useless stuff about history, or math. He noticed that Iruka had turned back to Ryoga and huffed.

Iruka had decided it was best to ignore the short-tempered young man that Ryoga had ended up standing with, "So where is Ranma-chan?" Ryoga once again stiffled laughter and he heard shuffling noises coming from behind him, he turned only to have his vest grabbed violently by the slightly shorter young man.

"Ranma-**sama **is right here," Ranma huffed almost lifting the baffled nin off the ground, "And you'd do well ta remember to never refer to me as -chan again."

Iruka was extremely confused, why this young man thought he was Ranma was one question but he definitely could tell the kid was arrogant without him referring to himself as -sama, the Hokage and the Headmaster of the Academy were the only people he felt warranted that much respect, however, before Iruka could voice his opinions on the matter, a person walking by carrying two buckets of water just happened to trip drenching Iruka and the young man, and suddenly Iruka felt his feet planted firmly and his vest being pulled slightly down as he looked into the face of a statuesque Red-head who was obviously even angrier now than she had been moments before.

"Ahh screw it," She said ringing out her shirt giving anyone who cared to look a view of her ample bosom, "not worth my time anyway, on with the tour Iruka-_dono_"

A brief while later found Ranma slurping Ramen, the best Ramen she'd ever had, and rethinking her opinion about Iruka.

"Sorry for, you know, getting in your face earlier," She said abashed, "I mean we just met, and I'm pretty sure you checked me out when ya first saw me, so calling me chan was a little rude." She said trying to at least make him see her reasoning for her aggression. He simply waved her off, taking a bite of his Ramen. Iruka had decided he like the young woman, despite her attitude, she at least showed the Hokage proper respect, and he could understand not seeing a chunin his equal considering how she had taken on Gai-dono, a jounin, and hadn't been any worse for wear. I mean if he wasn't several years older than her, he'd be calling her senpai in awe of her skills and strength.

Ryoga glanced at Ranma, surprised to hear another tidbit of respect coming from him in such a short time. "Wow, I wonder why he never treats me so kindly," he thought to himself before remembering that the first time he had seen Ranma since middle school had been accompanied by several attempts on his life, not to mention the Akane haircut debacle, "Actually, I guess it's more of an impression thing, if I hadn't followed Ranma to Jusenkyo I probably would've accepted the bread, hell we would probably have been fast friends." He smiled wondering if he'd have fallen for Akane if they'd been friends instead of rivals. He shrugged off the thought before turning back to the conversation between Ranma and Iruka.

"So, you can actually turn into a man?" Iruka asked, not realizing his grave mistake, Ryoga stiffened, and Iruka suddenly found himself laying on his back his arm painfully pushed between his shoulder-blades.

Ranma stood over the scar-faced man, "**I AM ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT MAN,**" she whispered dangerously into his ear, "and if I ever hear you say anything like that again, you wont be able to say the same thing, mmmk?" she finished, allowing her voice to lilt at the end, sounding as cute as she usually looked, Iruka simply nodded his head, his teeth grinding together because of the pain. He was definitely going to steer clear of any gingers in the future.

Ranma sighed as he stepped out of the shower in his apartment wearing a blue sleeveless quipao and a pair of black pants acquired from a local merchant, he had asked directions from a young girl who he had noticed wearing traditional Chinese clothes, which baffled him. He liked that he was able to be comfortable, it also helped him realize why his style hadn't been more out of place than it was. He exited the bathroom, running directly into Ryoga.

"Ranma!? What're you doing in my room!" He asked looking confused.

"This is my room ya idiot, I told you not to leave your room for anything or ya'd get lost, where'd you go and why?" Ranma responded, not actually caring overmuch as to why he left his room, Ranma was about to go knock on his door anyway.

Ryoga looked around before sheepishly replied, "I couldn't find the bathroom."

Ranma chuckled but decided not to make fun of Ryoga for it, instead, he simply grabbed Ryoga's arm and shoved into the room he had just exited, "Don't take long there're a few things I gotta ask ya."

_End of Chapter 3_

_**A/n : So, next chapter on Wednesday? I'll probably just upload one chapter when i finish another, also, I'm gonna run the chapters between 3-5 thousand words a pop, excluding the A/n**_


	5. Chapter 4

_**A/n: Ok guys, here's the next chapter on Wednesday as promised, I already have the one after this typed up, and am almost done with the one after that. I'll probably post the next one Saturday.**_

**_Ashe_****_\- I like that idea, and am already making a list of potential third squadmates, although that is several chapters in the future, no spoilers! ;p_**

**_LigerZer0\- I definitely plan on fleshing out Ryoga and Ranma's friendship quite a bit, there will be quite a bit of things to happen, as well as some incite into Ryoga's directional problems_**

**_James Birdsong_****_\- You're awesome, probably._**

**_Also, if anyone wants to submit some Ninja Oc's to populate the world P.M. me. (K3 if you're reading this, I love you, lil sis.)_**

Chapter 4: Realizations Made! Meet Team Gai!

Ranma sat facing his rival, wondering if they would be able to find a way home, they had been talking for the last hour about the move that had landed them here, the _**Jikū Kyūkei**_, Ryoga had told Ranma everything he could remember about the guy who had taught him the move, unsurprisingly it wasn't much.

"I guess we could try it out again, I'm not sure why I even showed up here though," Ryoga said finally, "I mean, it never affected me when I was training with it." Ryoga shook his head, it was worth a shot anyway.

Ranma stood nodding his head, "Let's not waste any time then." He walked towards the door, thinking about all the things that had happened over the past twelve hours

"I can't believe it's only been half a day since we got here," he thought to himself opening the door before turning back to Ryoga, "Hey, I'm going to tie a string to ya so you don't get lost." He then rummaged through Ryoga's bag before finding a long balled up cord, "Man Ryoga how much rope do ya need?"

Ryoga laughed cynically, "I end up in caves sometimes, usually end up spelunking by accident."

With the rope secured around Ryoga's waist, Ranma made his way out towards the training ground Iruka had shown them earlier on their tour of Konoha. As they approached, Ranma took stock of the area, three logs had been embedded upright in the ground, acting as impromptu punching post, coming out of the forest Ranma could see the river acting as the end the training ground, and he got a spectacular view of the mountains. He turned to Ryoga, who was looking around enjoying the sounds of the forest and began to untie the rope.

"Let's get this done and see if we can go home." the Pig-tailed boy said, jumping back several yards before bracing himself for an attack.

Ryoga nodded, bringing his arms into his side, bent at the elbow, before thrusting them outward towards Ranma, "_**Jikū Kyūkei!**_" he exclaimed and Ranma saw a translucent _Ki Aura _flying towards him faster than he could even react before he found himself transported backward, not pushed but actually teleported, several feet almost on top of the logs that were behind him.

Ranma looked around himself, noticing that Ryoga hadn't been moved at all, and sighed, "So what aren't you remembering about this move?"

"Now that you mention it," Ryoga said thoughtfully, "The man said something about this move being used to transport large quantities or ore out of mines without all of the labor." His thoughts drifted back to the man who had taught the move to him, a short round miner. "Hmm, why'd I think he was a martial artist again?"

Ranma blanched, of course, Ryoga would be the one to try and repurpose a third mining technique into combat, "So it's like the Breaking Point and the _**Shishi Hōkōdan**_?"

Ryoga sighed, "Yeah I guess so. It explains why he told me not to use it on someone who was expelling a large amount of ki, I just thought he meant it would hurt you, not make the technique backfire!"

Ranma sat down on one of the logs behind him, "Looks like we're stuck here…" He then stood up, "Wanna spar for a little while, it'll help me calm down."

Ryoga nodded, his thoughts drifting to Akari and Akane. He missed them both, and he knew Ranma must be feeling the same way, sparring would help both of them work through their emotions.

He jumped forward without warning, umbrella flashing out from his sleeve landing in his hand. He swung it down, smashing down where Ranma had been standing. Ranma was airborne by this point and aimed a kick at Ryoga's head, which was blocked by an upraised arm. Ryoga responded with a high kick, catching Ranma in his stomach launching him even higher into the air. He pivoted bringing himself around in the air, preparing a heel kick for Ryoga which was once again blocked. Ranma expected this however and landed upside down, arms folded up to his head, before kicking upward into Ryoga's chin. Ranma the used the momentum from the kick to launch himself airborne, matching Ryoga's flight. He was surprised to find himself on the defensive when Ryoga began to attack him mid-air a solid bandanna in each hand. As they landed they stopped fighting when both of them heard a gasp of astonishment. Ranma looked over at the child, he looked to be around 15, dressed entirely in green wearing leg warmers reminiscent of Gai's attire.

"Holy crap," Ranma said, "We have a Gai Junior over here." Suddenly he was on his back a red mark on his cheek where Ryoga's bandanna had impacted.

"Where are you looking Saotome?" Ryoga laughed before turning to the young Ninja, "and who might you be kid?"

The young man stiffened up, bringing his arms down straight by his side. "Rock Lee genin of Team Gai!" he almost yelled, his chest swelling with pride at the fact that he was the subordinate of the great Might Gai. He continued on with introduction, "I'm sorry to interrupt your spar, but my sensei told our team to meet at Training Ground Three."

Ranma looked at the kid in front of him, this kid radiated pure Ki power, unlike the ninja's which was slightly off, and he could tell he was a genius of some sort, "He's almost as strong as I was at that age!"

Ryoga smiled at the youth, "I'm Ryoga and that's Ranma, your one of Guy's team? He seemed like a good sort of person when I met him earlier, when are you supposed to meet him?"

Lee smiled, anyone who liked sensei was someone he could get along with, "In two hours, I came to begin my warm-up before the actual training!" Lee then promptly said to himself, "If I can't do two-thousand pushup, I'll do Three-thousand squats!" before dropping down and beginning to do said pushups.

Ranma smiled at that, before asking if he could join. Lee replied to the affirmative, warning that his workouts were rather intense, before continuing his counting. Ranma decided he liked the kid, he was humble and obviously didn't know that Ranma could keep up with whatever he could dish out. Several minutes passed before Ryoga too joined in on the warm-up.

"One-thousand, Eight hundred, and seventy-six," Lee said struggling to bring himself up, he looked over at the older boys, both of whom were doing better than he had expected, he could tell they were strong, he began to gain even more respect for them as his arms gave out. He sat panting for a moment, before quickly standing up and beginning his squats.

"If I can't do three-thousand squats, I'll do four-thousand sit-ups!" he said looking over once again at the two older boys who each were nearing the two-thousand mark, Ryoga slightly behind Ranma.

"What do you do if you can do the push-ups?" Ranma asked after several minutes having finally completed all of the push-ups.

Lee laughed, "I'm not sure, I usually set goals I can't meet so that I can't stop until I'm thoroughly warmed up." He thought for a moment before finally saying "Maybe just move through the other exercises, set your own goals, something that will get you pumped up!" He continued counting his squats, noticing the other boy had also begun to do squats.

An hour passed and Lee had gone through several more exercises when decided he was warmed up enough, he then began to go through his Katas noticing the pig-tailed boys interest in this, he stopped and smiled, "I can show you my katas if you show me yours!"

Ranma having just finished his crunches smiled broadly, before jumping towards the kid, "I'm always interested in learning new Martial Arts styles, and if you use the same one as Guy did, I'd gladly trade a few of mine for yours!"

The fountain of youth that was Rock Lee felt himself beginning to become excited at the prospect. He was happy that this stranger like his master's taijutsu style, and was always looking to better himself as a ninja to prove he didn't need Nin or Genjutsu.

After almost an hour had passed the duo finally stopped as a pair of ninja approached them, one was a young girl that Ranma recognized as the one who had directed him to the clothing store, and the other was a boy who had long hair, and pure white eyes.

"Neji, Tenten, this is Ranma and Ryoga, they were training here when I arrived," Lee said looking at his teammates affectionately. He looked around, "Where is Guy-sensei?" he asked, it wasn't like Gai to be late for anything.

Tenten sighed, "He went to visit the Hokage, told us to let you know he had a surprise for all of us, something about special training."

Lee's eyes lit up, almost like a fire burning in his pupil, while both of the older boys that Tenten didn't know looked interested at the prospect of training. "Ohh great, even when we get some good-looking guys around they're also training freaks." She thought to herself, having recognized Ranma as the guy who had asked directions to her clothing store, she asked him if he'd made it alright.

"Yeah, I appreciate the help, I needed some new ones and I had just torn up my old shirt." He rubbed the back of his head, laughing a little before asking something that shocked all three of Gai's Pupils to the core.

"So are you two as strong as Lee here?" He noticed their shocked reactions, the kid named Neji growled a little as he looked Ranma up and down.

"I am far superior to this talentless weakling," Neji said through his gritting teeth, "I am a Hyuuga, and can use both Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. I am actually surprised this idiot who can use neither was able to make it onto our team at all." He smirked a little at that, he had come to respect how hard a worker Lee was despite it being futile, however, to have it insinuated that Lee could be stronger than him was something he wouldn't let stand, "and I don't want to imagine how weak you must be for you to view Rock Lee as strong."

Ranma's eyes narrowed at that, he could feel the long-haired boys ki output, and it was elevated for someone his age, but not overly so compared to the other ninja around him. It was larger than Tentens but nowhere near as large as Rock Lee's overflowing fountain of Ki. "You want to test just how weak I am?" Ranma said his voice taking on a dangerous pitch.

Ryoga looked at Ranma deciding that he wouldn't interfere with this one, he had just heard the insult after all and Ranma definitely wouldn't take that from some kid he'd just met.

"As if I, one of the Hyuga Clan, would lower myself to fighting a no-name such as yourself," He said, before finding himself sprawled back into the dirt, his stomach aching from the blow he hadn't even seen coming, he coughed before flipping over backward, landing on his feet, "You will come to realize the mistake you have just made."

Before they could clash for real, there was a swirl of leaves between the two as Might Guy appeared stopping the hostilities. "Neji stand down!" Guy said, turning to Lee and Tenten, "I see you've met my surprise for you."

Ranma looked confused, he turned to Guy giving him a quizzical look and staring at the little punk he'd been about to put in his place.

Guy looked back at Ranma and Ryoga, "Was going to ask you both to come and help me train my pupils in lieu of going on any missions. You could definitely teach all of them a thing or two about taijutsu."

Ranma smiled, he'd gladly teach Lee something probably even the young Chinese girl, but not the pupil-less brat, "Maybe if you get this punk over here to apologize to me, an Lee, I mean he doesn't even realize that Lee's definitely a bit stronger than him, and he should definitely watch his mouth when he's speaking to his superiors."

Lee smiled at that, his goal after all was to become stronger than Neji and to have someone say that he had met his goal made him very happy, even if he didn't feel like it was true.

Guy sighed, looking at Neji. "You definitely shouldn't pick fights with people who can beat your master," he said simply, causing the Hyuga's eyes to widen along with Lee and Tenten's.

Guy let out a boisterous laugh, "Yes it's true, I was defeated not once but twice in martial combat by these two young men, not five hours ago, and to top that off, neither of them used any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu." Lee looked amazed, he hadn't realized his goal was that near. He knew that he'd have to work hard, but to think he'd be able to do it within such a short number of years!

Guy noticed his star pupils look of amazement and smiled, yes Lee was the one he knew would benefit the most from the training of these two if they agreed to do it, but he also knew that Tenten and Neji could both learn more as well.

Neji looked abashed, the fact that his sensei would lose to someone such as this, he activated his Byakugan, noticing a complete lack of chakra flow within this Ranma, he was astonished, outraged even that there was someone who didn't need Chakra to best Jounin. He glanced at the young man named Ryouga, he too lacked Chakra, more importantly, he had a disfigured chakra pathway, the paths that would normally go to his brain were almost non-existent. He shook his head before bowing, "I apologize for my rudeness, and to you too Lee, if one who can best our Sensei says you are strong, who am I to argue." He then stood up, obviously angry at the fact that he had been forced to apologize.

Guy shook his head jovially, deciding that he would need to try and work out some of that arrogance., before turning to Ranma and Ryoga, "So will you help them learn some Taijutsu?"

"No," Ranma replied simply, "None of them save Lee is at the appropriate physical level to handle my training," He noticed the indignant look that crossed Neji's face before he continued on, "However, I would gladly help work them up to that level."

Ryoga nodded his assent when Guy looked over towards him, "I don't really have anything I can teach, maybe some Gymnastics, but I'd be glad to help, on one condition."

Guy sensei looked over at his students before asking what he would require.

"I need someone to escort me around town, like a guide, I have this problem where I get lost a lot," Ryoga said, his face tinged red from embarrassment, "and I don't want to have to rely on Ranma for help."

Tenten had become even more interested when the boy had mentioned Gymnastics, and she decided showing him around town wouldn't be a problem for her, especially if it meant bettering herself, "I'll be his guide Sensei."

"It's decided," Guy said raising his fist, "Let's begin right away."

As the sun began to set, Ranma looked over at his handy work, two members of Team Guy, Neji, and Lee, were laid out in the dirt panting for air, sweat rolling off of them. Lee with permission from Guy had taken off his weights to acclimate to the training faster. Ranma had looked at the weights, realizing that they were incredibly heavy, not enough for him to struggle with, but more than he would have expected to be able to fit so comfortably under the kid's leg warmers.

"Those weigh as much as those boulders we used to lug around during training with the added benefit of being able to fight while wearing them," he thought to himself.

He smiled once more realizing how good Rock Lee actually was. Despite his intense amount of training, he hadn't been able to keep up with Ranma's level of training for more than three hours, which was twice as long as Tenten, and about thirty minutes more than Neji.

Guy looked on in amazement, he could tell just from today's session that his team had improved markedly. He smiled inwardly, Tenten, had given up on Ranma's training after about an hour and a half and had looked to Ryoga for training. The pair had spent several minutes testing Tenten's skills, she was a weapons expert, and Ryoga appreciated that, showing her his own abilities with his headband. She was amazed, he was precise, and could even hit every shot with Kunai as well. He did admit that he couldn't improve her marksmanship, but he could show her his gymnastic skills. He then asked her about her taijutsu which she admitted was subpar, He decided that he would help her with that, if someone could negate her tools, she would be easily defeated.

"That's why I've got Neji and Lee!" she defended, Ryoga simply shook his head.

"What if someone gets in close, or if it's a one on one fight?" he said, wondering how well she would do in a spar with Neji, "Besides, I'm basically immune to ninja tool unless you can throw them as hard as Ranma can!" He began to laugh as he stood up and moved downrange.

"Go ahead, throw something at me!" He yelled back, not expecting her to do it, he smirked as a kunai hit him in the arm, promptly bouncing off landing on the ground in front of him.

"Crap," She thought realizing that there had been an explosive tag on it, she started to yell only to be cut off as the kunai exploded shredding the ground leaving a cloud of dust and smoke in its wake. She began to run, hoping he would be able to make it to the hospital, only to stop and stare, as did everyone else save Ranma, as Ryouga walked out of the smoke, no worse for wear, his clothes also, somehow, still in one piece.

Guy's eyes widened, he knew that both of them were strong, but for a kunai to simply bounce off of someone like that was unthinkable, he looked at Ranma " Can you do that?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nah, he underwent some crazy training where this old lady we knew smashed a boulder into him over and over. Made him tough as hell too."

Guy shook his head, deciding to take that comment and roll with it. He looked over at his other students who had all recovered enough to sit up, their eyes wide with amazement.

"If you can watch others train, you can do it yourself!" Ranma yelled at the duo, only to be surprised as a look of determination flashed across each of their faces and they once again began to train vigorously.

"At this rate, it'll only be a month until Neji's up to my training, I can start with lee tomorrow," Ranma said to Guy-sensei as they walked back towards where Ranma was staying, Ryoga in tow. Guy had dismissed his students to rest and recover, and had decided to discuss training them with Ranma, "I can't, however, spend all of my time teaching them, I'm trying to get a life going here, and I don't really fit the trainer bill very well."

Guy couldn't help but agree, he was what Jounin aspired to be, possibly even stronger than the Hokage had been in his prime, maybe even stronger than the fourth, but he wasn't a teacher, he was cursed with the burden of always seeking out new stronger opponents, and wanted to learn new techniques. Guy understood the want, but couldn't shake off his ties to Konoha, his life was here, but Ranma was free to travel where he wanted and knew that he was welcome where he was at currently.

"I must admit, we would love for you to stay here in Konoha, maybe join in on our missions, become an official Hidden Leaf Ninja," Guy said, you wouldn't have to go through the academy, we'd treat it like a village transfer. It has happened before."

Ranma thought about that for a moment, "I would like to have some sort of official status," he thought to himself. "I'll consider it for a while before going to the Hokage if I decide that's what I'd like to do."

Ryoga had overheard their conversation, and interjected at this point, "Me too." He had already figured out that any offer made to Ranma carried over to himself.

Guy then sighed, "So about these curses, I was informed about, I need you to answer some questions for me, It's piqued my interest."

"What do ya want to know?" Ranma said in a resigned tone, "I mean I already answered the Hokage's questions." He was wondering why Guy hadn't said anything about the fact that he was male after meeting him at the training area.

Guy's face became more serious as he prepared to ask his question, "How does it feel to turn into a pig?" He asked turning towards Ryoga, who simply laughed, remembering Akari asking him the same thing.

"It's strange, but not really, I'm not sure because the curse makes me feel like I've always been a pig, but it also makes me know that I'm not one. It's like you know a curse is bad, so it makes me feel like being a pig is what I always was. I hate it honestly, but like all things you get used to it with time." Ryouga explained.

Guy understood the concept of it, he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything to help either of them considering Magic wasn't something they dealt with very often.

As they neared the apartment complex, Guy turned towards Ranma, "Do you think Lee will be able to do the things you do with the balls of light?" Ranma had explained to Guy on the walk that he didn't know what Chakra was, but he used pure physical energy for his attacks. Guy had brought up the subject after remembering that he had noticed a lack of hand signs during their fight.

"I have no doubt, given some time he could definitely learn to, however, it will be a couple years at his current rate, I was sixteen when I learned my first ki technique after all, and he's not quite at the level I was when I was his age," Ranma responded, Lee had incredible potential, and would easily be his equal one day, Ranma knew he would peak, and Lee would keep climbing, he also knew that his peak wasn't anywhere near yet. He had years to get stronger, so did Rock Lee.

The third Hokage looked at the Anbu member sitting in front of him, listening to his opinion on Ranma and Ryoga, he was expecting what he heard, the Anbu member had gotten close enough to listen to their conversation on multiple occasions, and overall the two young men, or woman and man, or whatever, were grateful for the help. The Hokage knew that it would take Guy unleashing most of the Gates to put either of them down, he estimated that each of them was Sannin level at the worst.

"Continue to monitor them for now," he said, "We might as well make sure they're trustworthy before we agree to let them stay long term, you all will be stretched thin enough when the Exams begin."

He wasn't looking forward to explaining any of this to his advisors, or Danzo, or any of the Clan Heads, but it had to be done. He thought back on what Guy had asked him several hours ago, he was reluctant to ask these young men to train his ninja, but Guy thought that it was a good idea and he had decided if they were willing to help, then he would accept it. He knew they needed stronger ninja, and if these two could impart some of their power to his Genin than he would gladly accept this.

He looked out over the city of Konohagakure he was deciding why he suddenly had a bad feeling, people were moving in the shadows against Konoha and he knew it would take someone better than him to help the leaf continue to stand as it was. He turned back to the Anbu member, "and I would like you to ask Danzo to increase the urgency behind the search for a fifth Hokage."

_End Chapter 4_

**_P.S. This chapter and the next few have some 'inadequately' explained training. I just really didn't feel like going into super details about training that wouldn't do much long term, it is only going to affect the events of Naruto, and won't stretch into Shippuden, which I have every intention of reaching. Btw, I want to know how many people are interested in me possibly putting Akane and Shampoo into actual roles in the story. I have a slight Idea of what I could do with them and how I could get them to Naruto's world, but I don't really know if anyone want that so..._**


	6. Chapter 5

_**A/n: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy**_

Chapter 5: Training Begins! Decisions Made!

The sun rose over Konoha, shining down on the form of one Ryoga Hibiki, he looked around frantically, he began to run down the still empty streets. He was frustrated at how easily he had become lost, not knowing his way around this area, hell even if he'd been familiar with it he'd still have gotten lost as soon as he started to walk. He stopped running now, realizing it was only making it worse. He sat down, looking up at the sky, hoping for some sort of sign to point him in the right direction, only to be hit directly in the face by the contents of a pot. He squealed in protest as he made his way out of his, now several sizes too large, clothing.

P-chan was peeved, he had already been lost but now he was a pig too, why did the universe hate him. He looked around himself, not even knowing where to begin looking for his way home when suddenly he heard a girl's voice from behind him.

"Oh, are you lost little piggy?" Hinata Hyuga asked the small animal in front of her, bending down to pick it up, she could've sworn she saw it nod at her question but dismissed the idea, the only animals with that sort of intelligence were nin-beast and one of them would be able to speak.

She walked for a while, wondering what she would call the little piggy before shaking her head sadly, "Father would never allow me to keep him," she sighed to herself, "maybe he has an owner."

She decided she'd ask her sensei what to do with the pig when they met up at the training area, she had called an emergency meeting of Team 8 and had told them to come prepared to train. She was looking forward to training more with sensei and her teammates, she had to prove her worth. As she neared Training Ground Three she noticed a clamor of voices and heard Kiba's voice protesting something.

"Why the hell do we have to train with this Jackass?" the dog-nin exclaimed looking towards Neji Hyuga, who simply huffed.

As Hinata came into view, carrying a little piglet, Neji's eyes hardened, and both Jounin present looked surprised. Kurenai smiled at the Kunoichi, before asking "And where did you happen to find one of our guest instructors?"

Hinata looked puzzled, she wondered what her sensei was talking about when suddenly the pig wriggled out of her grasp and ran towards Guy-sensei. All of the Genin present looked thoroughly confused at this, and Guy simply laughed, hoisting the pig onto his shoulder.

"Don't worry young Ryoga, Ranma contacted me a while ago and told me he had to find you, I'll send him a message right away." Guy then made a series of intricate hand signs and slammed his palm into the ground, Team 8 looked on in amazement as a turtle appeared, "Tell Ranma-sama that Ryoga has appeared at the training ground." He then turned away as the turtle slowly made its way towards the village prompting all of the gathered ninja to look on in amazement, before Guy turned back towards them and said "Na, just kidding." before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Hinata promptly began to stammer out questions only to be drowned out by Kiba's even louder voice, "What was that sensei, why'd thick brow-sama call that pig one of our trainers?"

"I will explain that later, for now, I want all of you to try and get acquainted with Team Guy, they will also be participating in this training," Kurenai said, not even bothering to try and explain the intricacies of magic. She looked over at Neji, one of her many concerns about this venture, his dislike for Hinata was evident, and she was worried that he would have a negative impact on her growth, her other concerns were that she would be entrusting her team to two people that she knew nothing about, and, despite Guy's insistence that the Hokage had approved of it, she wasn't sure her team could handle it. She looked around her, getting a feel for the Chakra of the Genin that surrounded her, she could already see the results it had produced in Neji and Tenten, both had much higher levels than they had previously, and surprisingly she could actually feel the power radiating from Lee, she had never bothered to try and sense his before, she knew he couldn't perform Ninjutsu or Genjutsu so she had never been interested, but his power felt like what Ranma and Ryoga had, although a lot less than either of them had.

Lee and Tenten took that as a signal that they too should start to mingle and Kurenai watched as Akamaru barked excitedly from Kiba's head.

Kiba sighed, "Alright Akamaru, I'll tell her," he laughed as he approached Tenten, "Hi, I'm Kiba, and this is Akamaru, he told me to tell you that you seemed like a kind person, He's usually right about these things."

As the introductions concluded, Kurenai couldn't help but notice that neither Neji nor Shino had participated in the mingling. She looked up as she noticed Guy jumping through the treetops towards them, followed closely by the short red-head, and Ryoga back in his human form. She waved towards them, looking towards over at the confused faces of Guy's team, as Guy landed in front of them, he looked at his team's faces, before turning towards Kurenai's students.

"Meet your temporary trainers!" he said in the over-the-top fashion he tended to favor.

"Sensei, where is Ranma-sensei?" Lee asked from behind Guy, "I thought he would be teaching us today." As Tenten nodded, signifying that she too wished to know this, Neji looking on in bemusement, slightly interested, the short, very beautiful read-head stepped out from behind the Jounin, "Well, I thought I made more of an impression than that!" she said mock-indignantly, "I mean to tell me that you could forget this face?" she added teasingly. Team Guy looked on in confusion before Neji began to focus his chakra inward.

"It's not a Genjutsu Neji," Guy said, shaking his head before pulling out a steaming kettle, dumping it on Ranma, who in front of everyone's eyes transformed back into a guy.

"And it's not a jutsu either," Ranma added, looking at each of the prospective students, and one dog, he could tell they wanted to argue that it couldn't be anything other than a ninjutsu, but Ranma quickly went on, "Neither me, nor my friend Ryoga here, can use your ninja tricks, in fact, I don't even consider myself a ninja. I am a martial artist."

Guy quickly gave the order for the two teams to pair up, not with anyone from the same team, and to prepare to train. Team 8 looked to their sensei, seeing her nod they each made their way towards someone on the other team, Hinata moving towards Lee, who despite being a little more intense than she was used to, was one of the friendliest people she had met thus far, and Kiba headed towards Tenten, neither Neji nor Shino made to move, Guy had to give Neji a push in the right direction. The teams of two having formed, Guy raised his arm, indicating that it was Ranma's turn to speak.

"Alright, all of you who were here yesterday, I want you to show the newbies how it's done," Ranma said, turning towards the two Jounin level ninja.

He approached them before asking, "Is there anything I need to know about any of these guys," he said, he could sense the tension between Team 8 and Neji specifically, he knew that the kid would need to have his superiority kicked out of him, most likely literally, and had decided that it would take Lee kicking his smug face in to do it, however he had quickly rethought his opinion upon noticing the hostility that Neji was directing at the short haired girl.

Kurenai appraised the man in front of her, having never seen Ranma like this before, she decided he was handsome, not more so that Asuma, but still handsome. She sighed, bowing towards Ranma, "I apologize for my rudeness before, I did not expect someone who had no chakra to be able to best a chunin, much less defeat my Genjutsu, and Might Guy. She straightened, noticing Ranma's dismissal taking it as acceptance.

"My genin are well trained, almost ready for the Chunin exams, however, Hinata lacks self-confidence, and Kiba makes up for that lack with his own. He is headstrong and confident in his, and Akamaru's abilities as a ninja. Shino is reserved, and easily the most battle-ready of the group, he, in my opinion, is the only one who is truly ready for the Chunin title." The red-eyed Jounin explained, sighing as she looked towards the combined team. Neji was, surprisingly, teaching Shino the workout without adding anything in, while Hinata was making her way through Lee's examples seamlessly, Kiba was also acclimating well to the training, rigorous as it looked.

Ranma gave all three of the newcomers appraising looks before saying, "Neji and Hinata are related?" He looked at her eyes, both of which were the same pupiless grey as Neji's.

"Yes, they are cousins, however Hinata is seen as a disgrace by her father, she is too timid and lacks drive, and it seems that the disdain has carried over to the 'Genius of the Hyuga Clan'" She replied, "I am slightly worried that his presence will cause Hinata to falter."

Ranma simply smiled, "If anyone doesn't falter I'll eat my shoes, I will, however, see what I can do about Hinata's confidence problems, and we'll see about the dog-boy over there too."

Kurenai shot Guy a look, suddenly she felt even more apprehension at the prospect of this training. As time passed, Kurenai began to wonder what was happening when Ranma finally stepped forward.

"That's enough of a warm-up," he declared stepping forward, "I will now demonstrate the Kata's I expect from each of you, and then I will leave you in the hands of Ryoga while I step aside with Lee for the advanced lesson."

He demonstrated the most complex set of kata's Kurenai had ever seen, before reaching out a hand to Lee who pulled off his weights and handed them to Ranma, "You will also be using these," he said, handing a section of each weight to a genin. All of the assembled Genin except for Neji grimaced as they felt the weight settle onto their midsection, they were attached with rope, Ranma continued to hand sections of weight to Neji until finally, the Genin's forehead began to sweat, "That oughta do it, although that's only about a fourth of what Lee hear wears all day every day." Neji stared needles at Ranma, before beginning his Kata's with Shino. He quickly moved to the side with Lee.

"Ok, Ranma walked me through these Katas last night, I can remember them just fine, just got to correct any mistakes and add weight to anyone who likes like they've got it too easy…" Ryoga thought to himself, chuckling at how similar this was to an expression he had learned back home, well America anyway, "A teacher doesn't have to know everything, just stay one step ahead of those he is teaching." He glanced at Ranma, his rival had decided the best way to train Rock Lee was with sparring, and Ryoga had to say he agreed. As time passed he could tell that the Katas, while difficult also had the effect of circulation Ki, causing rapid growth, which was one of the only truly useful things that Ranma had learned from Happosai, despite it only working for a month before the growth slowed back down as the Ki settled back down from the "Stirring the Pot to Cause the Water to Boil" method, Happosai's name for it. He could already sense a shift in both of the Hyuga's Ki as well as the new guy with the dog, Tenten wasn't seeing as much growth, and Ryoga had already decided that she would be learning all he knew about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, he finally brought his gaze over to Shino, who had what seemed like thousands of tiny ki signatures inside of him. He walked closure, grabbing a weight and placing it in the makeshift harness that Guy had made and brought with him. Shino huffed, before continuing his Katas.

Kurenai watched in awe, as her students, even Kiba, worked quietly, she could see their chakra, wavering as they worked, it was a beautiful sight, and she was sure that they could all feel it themselves. Her worries mostly melting away, she decided to sit back and watch, something still bothering her. After about an hour, and a couple more weight increases, Tenten finally dropped out of the Katas, still not Physically up to the training. She turned to Ryoga, who in turn looked at Guy who nodded, they both separated themselves from the group as Kiba and Hinata came together, both seeming to urge the other onward.

An hour and a half later all of the gathered ninja looked towards Lee and Ranma in astonishment, each of them were moving so quickly that no one could keep up save the Jounin, Guy's chest puffed out with pride at the sight of his star pupil reaching such a height, he knew that his entire squad had reached the level of a Chunin now, there was no doubt in his mind. He felt tears begin to well in his eyes, his heart a burning pillar of youth. He sighted wiping away the single teardrop, before making brief eye contact with Lee, and shooting his star pupil a thumbs up, and his trademarked Sparkle Smile. Lee grinned at that, ducking under one of Ranma's kicks, before focusing back on the fight.

Ranma smiled, this was the second time he'd had a speedy opponent, while he still had to hold back to keep it interesting he was enjoying it immensely. He blocked Lee's kick aimed at his head, before jumping over Rock Lee, planting three light blows into the top and back of Lee's head. He quickly dodged under Lee's whirlwind kick, before seamlessly copying it, catching Lee off guard. He surprised Lee even more as he swiftly circled around him, forcing Lee to defend against hundreds of blows from all directions. Lee grimaced before attacking at the slight opening he noticed in Ranma's defense, only to catch a shoe in the head, he grimaced.

"I will be more wary of traps after that one," He thought to himself, jumping up high, trying to escape the circle of punches and kicks that he had been trapped in, Ranma watched as Lee used all of his speed to put distance between himself and the pig-tailed boy. Three shuriken coming at him from two directions, having curved expertly around, Ranma sped up, catching one and using it to intercept the two coming from his left. Lee, capitalizing on his opponent's distraction, blurred towards Ranma, landing a textbook Dynamic Entry into Ranma's back. Ranma rolled forward using the momentum from the kick to add some distance. He turned back towards his opponent, smiling. Their spar had only been going on for ten minutes, the limit he usually imposed on fights. He held up a hand, Lee coming to a stop in front of him.

He walked back towards the group of Genin, noticing that guy had begun improvising when they had run out of weights, Kiba had a pouch on his harness full of rocks of various sizes, and Hinata had a large iron chain draped over her shoulders. He laughed at this, looking over at Ryoga, who was showing Tenten how to use a ribbon in close-combat, something she was picking up quickly. He noted marked progress in each of them, "They'll be stronger than that Iruka guy soon."

The Anbu in charge of watching over Ranma and Ryoga quickly hopped away, his report prepared for the day. As he approached the Hokage's tower he stopped outside the window, where all Anbu entered and exited from, and listened for a moment, making sure it was ok to enter.

"And you decided to let two strangers train our _**GENIN?**_" Koharu Utatane asked, "Two, by your description, incredibly strong unknown individuals, and you give them basically free reign over the village?"

Sarutobi simply sighed, he had already stated his reasoning and was slightly annoyed that none of his Council Members seemed to support his decision. He looked to the Clan heads for support, and finally, his eyes landed on Danzo.

Danzo, who still had bandages all over his body, simply shook his head, "Hokage's decision may have been brash, but depending on what the Anbu member waiting outside has to say, let's hold off on our judgment too much," at his words the Masked man appeared in the center of the room, bowing in front of the Hokage. He was the ninja who had been assigned to watching the two young men's activities, and his report was conclusive and informative. They had assigned a sensory nin to the two so that he could keep an eye on them without actually being in sight, and if what he was reporting know about the Growth of the two ninja was to be believed then anyone who had been doubting the Hokage's decision quickly found themselves rethinking their decision.

Koharu simply smiled, wondering why she had doubted the Hokage, "I see my concerns were unfounded," She turned to the Anbu member in front of her, "Tell me Anbu, do you think they will accept Guy's invitation to join our ranks? They will obviously be Jounin Ranked, but that is only if they decide to accept his offer."

The masked man nodded, "I believe so my lady, They both are combatant, and wish to explore, however keeping them in the village will prove to be impossible."

The Hokage smiled, he had decided that was true the moment he had asked Guy to ask Ranma and Ryoga to join them, but if they could manage to get two previously unknown power on their side, the leaf would have a trump card that few would see coming. He thought back to the Anbu's report on the Training that the ninja under Ranma were going through, massive jumps in power, after only a day three of the Genin had apparently reached Chunin levels of strength, Genin who hadn't shown any prior signs of becoming chunin level anytime soon.

He looked around at his advisors and the Clan heads, noticing as he did that Hiashi was preparing to speak, he turned back into the conversation.

"You say that my Daughter seems to be excelling in this training, showing Chunin level abilities?" He asked, suddenly more interested than before, and what of her countenance? Is she still as timid?"

The Anbu turned to face Hiashi, "She has shown no emotional change thus far, however, I overheard her teacher mention this very thing to the boy Ranma," he looked back at the Hokage, "He claimed that he would be able to handle all of the personality defects present, including the other Hyuga's who he claims, 'needs ta be knocked down a peg or two'." Concluded the Anbu before bowing once more and being dismissed by Danzo. Hiashi smiled lightly to himself, "To think my first born may actually be able to become clan head after all," he thought to himself.

"If there are no more concerns, I think this meeting is adjourned."

_End Chapter 5_


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Kakashi's Return! Prepare for the Chunin Exams!

Akane Tendo sighed, it had been two weeks since Ranma and Ryoga had both disappeared. She knew in her heart that Ranma would come back to her, after what had happened with Saffron she knew he loved her, and that she felt the same way towards him. She looked towards Genma Saotome, Ranma's Panda/Dad, and asked the question she had asked so many times in these last two weeks, "Are you sure?"

Genma nodded his head, "I already told you Akane when he was young I met a traveling martial artist, he showed me a technique that linked myself and Ranma's life forces, I'd know if he was dead."

Akane sighed, she wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or just trying to avoid having to commit Seppuku at the hands of Ranma's mother, after all a dead man is not a man among men, but she chose to have faith in the aging martial artist, she had to for her own sake.

Ranma sneezed, looked around, and decided that someone had been thinking about him. His own thoughts turned to Akane, thinking back to their disastrous wedding attempt, and laughed despite himself. He had just woken up in the apartment that Konoha had lent him and was preparing to do his morning workouts when there was a knock on the door. He opened it, fully expecting it to be either Guy or Lee, only to find himself face to face with the tall, white-haired ninja that he had met the day he arrived in Konoha. The man's one visible eye observed him lazily.

"I'm sorry, I was looking for someone else," Kakashi Hatake said, "You haven't seen a short, red-head around have you?" He eyed the young man who had answered the door, not sure what else to say.

"Got any water?" was the young man's only reply, he raised one eyebrow at Kakashi, "I can get her for you, but I need some water first."

Kakashi sighed, "Of course I end up meeting a crazy person first day back," he thought to himself, before pulling out his canteen and handing it over to the pig-tailed boy still in his pajamas. He was slightly surprised when instead of taking a drink he dumped the water over his own head, and he was even more surprised when suddenly standing directly in front of him, was the girl he'd been looking for.

He flushed when he noticed that her shirt was thoroughly soaked, giving Kakashi a view of her voluptuous chest, he turned his head away.

"You might want to put on a dry shirt," he said, motioning down towards her chest, trying his best to be courteous. "Damn, I might like to read 'romance novels' but I still have some respect in me," he thought to himself, as he was led inside by the short girl. A moment passed, and the redhead returned wearing a blue sleeveless qipao and a pair of black silk pants.

"So what'd ya want anyway?" Ranma asked, looking the one-eyed ninja up and down, "I mean you already thanked me for my help with those guys who attacked you before."

Kakashi nodded, "I was just coming to see if there was anything I could do for you, but I needed to also ask you an important question"

Ranma preempted the question with her answer, "Yes, I will help you train your students, I don't like training other people, but I also would hate to just sit back and watch as a bunch of kids went out into the world to get killed by a bunch of grown-up ninja," she shook her head, "You'll have to bring them to the training ground along with Guy and Kurenai's Kids though, can't be playin favorites."

Kakashi's grin was covered by his mask and his eye didn't show it, but Kakashi was glad that she had agreed to help, he had returned to Konoha today, and just happened to see Neji sparring with Hinata, both of them showing levels of strength and speed higher than he expected even from one of Guy's pupils, much less Hinata, who was showing confidence in her own abilities something that Kurenai had mentioned she was lacking completely. He had eventually been able to find Guy and had asked what had happened while he was away, only to find out that his team was falling behind, even after all of the growth they had accomplished in the Land of the Waves.

He was pulled from his musing by the girl's voice, "if you want to start today, meet up with us at Training Ground Three at noon, we start then,"

Kakashi nodded and quickly made his way out of the apartment heading to gather his team.

Ranma looked towards the mirror and sighed, she had already showered today and had no intention of doing so again, "Looks like today's a girl day." She made her way out the door, trying to find a nice sweets shop. She thought back on the progress her students had made, Lee was shaping up amazingly, he could move almost as fast now with his weights as he had originally been able to without them, and Neji, Hinata, and Kiba were all reaching the level that Lee's taijutsu had been at originally, true to her word, Ranma hadn't been able to help them with their Ninjutsu Skills but all of the Genin who had been training with Ranma daily for the last two weeks were now able to output much more chakra than they had originally been able to, plus with help from both Kurenai and Guy, their control over their Chakra had exponentially increased. Ranma stopped thinking about his training for a moment as he laid eyes on a tea-shop that advertised "The Best Rock-Candy in Konoha," her thoughts turned to sweets as she entered the store, slightly disappointed that the clerk was a female, no free stuff for now, and ordered herself, several sweets.

Naruto Uzumaki quickly made his way towards Training Ground Three, special training with sensei had naruto extra pumped even though he knew it was team training which meant Sasuke would be there.

"Sasuke's not as bad as I thought he was," Naruto thought to himself, "He's still an annoying smug bastard, but he's still my friend!" He stopped running when he noticed that there was a group of Ninja already at Training Ground Three, he spotted Kiba and Shino among some people he had never met before, standing to one side, exchanging blows with one of the strangers was Hinata, he was confused, but decide to continue forward, he within ear-shot when he heard Kiba say "Man, I can't believe how strong we've gotten in such a short period of time!" he reached down and rubbed Akamaru's head, "even Hinata can go toe to toe with Neji now,"

Kiba sighed, he was glad he was making progress, it frustrated him how quickly he had been passed by Hinata, especially after Ranma had increased the trainings difficulty, breaking down all of the participants, forcing them to come to terms with their actual limits, it had been a confidence boost for some, and had crushed a few egos. Neji was the most secure in his beliefs that he was superior, but even he had reconciled with Hinata, Ranma had quite literally kicked him down a peg or two, somehow getting to explain to the jounin his reason for hating Hinata, which despite what Kurenai had thought, wasn't truly hate for Hinata but for the Main house of the Hyuga. He had then been forced to realize that Hinata wasn't in charge of the Main house and that she too wasn't happy with her father.

Neji's Byakugan, like Hinata's, warned him that Sasuke and Sakura were approaching slightly behind Naruto, Neji had already taken advantage of Hinata's lapse in focus upon seeing Naruto and had scored several shots to her arm, closing down her chakra points, but had received several of his own as well.

Naruto had stopped in awe, watching the pair fight, showing skill beyond any he had seen from his classmates, "They're as good as, no better than Iruka," he was appalled, he thought he had gotten stronger, but here in front of him was Kiba and Hinata both showing skills far beyond what he had.

"What the hell!" he yelled in protest, "How the hell'd you get so strong?!" He ran up to Kiba, "Come on man, you gotta tell me, please!"

Ranma leaped out of the trees, looking down at the commotion below, she laughed to herself, "Alright everyone, let's get started, today we are gonna be showin' these newbies the ropes, I want each of you to find someone who is new, and walk them through the process, use the weights like I did with you all."

She turned towards Lee, "You get ready to spar," turning toward Kiba and Tenten, "you go work with Ryoga."

As the teams dispersed, Ranma noticed the blonde kid was standing there looking confused, "What is it kid?" she asked, looking him up and down, "Your one of Kakashi's kids right? He said you'd be training here." The jounin had informed him yesterday, Guy and Kurenai, that there was going to be a meeting about the Chunin exams that day, and that Guy would be the only one to show at practice. Before Ranma could say anything else Hinata approached and tapped Naruto on the shoulder.

"Umm, Naruto-kun, you can come train with me," the Hyuga said timidly, causing Ranma to give her a puzzled look.

"I thought that I had fixed her timidness," the redhead thought inwardly, before noticing the way that Hinata looked at Naruto, "Ahh, a crush." Ranma shook her head, and simply smiled, she wasn't sure why there seemed to be so much boy craze among the genin girls of Konoha, but Tenten's crush on Lee had been an amazing motivator for her thus far, and he could already spot the way that Lee kept glancing over at the Pink haired girl, Sakura, that he liked her.

"Well they are middle school aged kids after all," she said to herself as she turned towards Lee, his strength was exponentially more than it had been, and he no longer thought of himself as a loser. Ranma could tell the kid was a genius, and now so could Lee.

"Let us begin Saotome-sensei!" Lee yelled enthusiastically before springing forward his body untrackable by any save Ranma and Ryoga.

The third Hokage sat at his desk, "You all wish to nominate your teams for the Chunin Exams?" He asked glancing at Iruka's restlessness, "If you as their sensei believe them to be ready then I shall give you the registration forms." Iruka stepped forward at this point, "As their academy instructor have to protest, I know all of their strengths and weaknesses, and I seriously doubt that in the scant few months that you have trained them that they have improved to such a degree as to have a chance in the Chunin Exams."

Kakashi looked him in the eye, "They aren't your students they're my soldiers now, and I say that they are ready." His eye calmly watched Iruka's response who sighed, conceding defeat on the subject.

Several hours later, Ranma had finished her spar with Lee, and Kakashi had appeared seconds before Kurenai joined them. He looked over at Kakashi, who looked on in amazement as Naruto silently worked through the Katas wearing the equivalent of his own bodyweight in training weights, he turned to Ranma

"Is that usual?" The copy Ninja asked, observing the young ninja's intensity, "He's never been this focused before."

Ranma sighed, "That kid is one of the most driven people I have ever met, plus he's a fast learner when it comes to physical stuff. I had to keep adding weight to get him to stop complaining about not learning fast enough. He's definitely improving the fastest out of your team, much to that Sasuke kid's irk. He too insisted on more weight, never letting himself be beaten by the 'loser' or something like that, anyway, If I'm not mistaken, your entire team is stronger than Kurenai's was when they started, so it should only take about a week for them to catch up."

Kakashi let his glance shift over to where Sasuke, similarly covered in weights, was methodically working through his Kata, all the while using his Sharingan to observe the moves of those around him.

He then turned back to Ranma, "So do you use a Jutsu to turn into a woman, or is it you turning into a man?"

Ranma sighed, shaking her head, "No, I'm a guy, I was traveling through China on a training journey with my old man when we came across a cursed training ground, I ended up being cursed to turn into a girl when I contact cold water, and back into a guy when the waters hot," she shrugged, "I really need to find a better way to explain this to people."

Kakashi thought for a moment, "I don't know anything about curses, we have a few Jutsus out in the world called curses, and there are curse marks, but I guess you could tell people it's a bloodline."

"And what is a bloodline?" Ranma asked, observing her temporary students progress for the day.

Kakashi took several minutes to explain family "bloodlines" and how they were usually unique to a family, he also thought through some of the merits of using that explanation.

Ranma thought about the new info and agreed that it would be the simplest way to explain away the curse, especially if she didn't want to have to go into the long explanation all of the time. She looked up at the setting sun before sighing., "Alright that's enough for today."

Kakashi Hatake looked at each of his students, all of whom looked exhausted, and pulled out three papers, "These are the Chunin Exam registration forms, if you believe that you are ready to try and become chunin then you must come to the Academy on the specified date, it is, of course, a personal decision, and if you are late then you are out of luck. I want you all to consider it carefully." Simultaneously, two other Jounin were telling their teams the same thing.

Hinata nodded her head, determination evident in her face, she looked to her two teammates, who were also showing signs of being prepared for whatever the exams could throw at them.

Ino Yamanaka looked at her sensei, she was glad that he had faith in her and their team, she was worried that Shikamaru wouldn't go to the exam regardless, but her pride in Asuma's faith in them was evident, "Come on Guys! Let's prove sensei right!" She looked over at Choji who was silently munching potato chips, he finished before saying, "Sensei, could we go to a steak house if we do well?"

Naruto Uzumaki was deep in thought, which, if you knew him was not something you would expect from him. He sat on the roof of his apartment building, "I feel physically stronger, but not much," he thought before slamming his fist down onto the concrete beside him, "Damn it, I need to get stronger than Sasuke, and the damn Bushy Brows, how can someone be that strong and not be a chunin?"

Naruto stood suddenly, "I'll ask sensei for some extra training!" He leaped off of the roof, heading towards the center of town when suddenly he heard a yell from the adjacent ally.

He looked down the alley to see Konohamaru and his two friends, Naruto didn't know their names, and smiled, "Yo, Konohamaru!" He said, lifting a hand in greeting, "Guess who's gonna become a Chunin!" He stopped, noticing the lack of a response from his friend/underling, before noticing that there were two other people in the alley beside Konohamaru's crew. One was a girl slightly taller than himself, carrying a giant fan, and the other was a guy who had something wrapped in bandages on his back.

"A runt like you is gonna be a chunin?" the ninja clad in black said, his voice had a dangerous edge to it, "Damn the leaf must be weaker than I thought."

Naruto stopped, his balling his fists, "Who the hell do you think you are, do you know who I am?" Konohamaru turned at this point his face showing relief and excitement.

"Boss!" he yelled, him and his friends sprinting to Naruto.

The mysterious ninja, who wasn't wearing a leaf headband, laughed, "No, who the hell are you pipsqueak?"

Naruto growled, his anger beginning to rise, he took several steps forward, yelling at this point, "I'm the future Hokage of this village, believe it!" He started to approach the mysterious ninja when suddenly, in a swirl of sand, there was a short, red-haired, boy standing between himself and the jerk who'd been insulting him.

"Come on Kankuro, Temari," said a surprisingly deep voice, "We don't have time to play with trash like this." He then began to walk away before turning back towards the stunned Leaf ninja, "If I were you, I'd stay out of the chunin exam, unless you wish to die." He promptly disappeared in another swirl of sand.

"What was that boss, why didn't you clobber em for talking to you like that?" Konohamaru asked from behind Naruto. Naruto turned and looked at his admirer, "I didn't have to, they left, didn't they? I've been training like crazy lately, and I wouldn't want to go around hurting people now would I?"

Konohamaru gave Naruto a doubtful look before nodding, "So, can we play ninja like you promised now boss?"

Ranma Saotome sat in her apartment, she and Ryoga were discussing the merits of becoming Ninja for the village.

"We'll have actual money coming in," Ranma said, she tugged on her pigtail, "and we'll get to go out and do cool stuff for a change, I mean these kids are cool, but I really don't want to hang around train other people all the time."

Ryoga looked around, "I get what you mean, I'm just reluctant to leave the village, I'm positive I'd get lost and never find my way back here again, maybe these Ninja can help me figure out my directional problems." He looked over at Ranma, shaking his head, "Before I agree to any kind of mission, I have to have a guaranteed way back to town."

Ranma stopped pulling on her pigtail, before standing up, "You're right, maybe Guy know some sort of trick that will help you not get so lost."

The two rivals looked at each other then nodded, both leaving the apartment together, A girl and a pig, Ryoga transformed so Ranma could carry him without having to worry about him getting lost, made their way to Might Guy's residence.

After a ten minute walk, with nary an interruption for once, Ranma knocked on the door of Guy's house and, after being invited inside, filled Guy in on Ryoga's issue.

"I'm sorry my friends," Guy said forlorn, "I can't help you, if it is a medical problem then perhaps try and find a medical nin? And if it's some sort of chakra based illness then maybe see if the Hokage knows of any way to help."

Ranma thanked Guy for the advice, before making her way back home, She looked at the clock on the wall, and sighed.

"It's almost 8 o'clock," she said to Ryoga, I think it's time to sleep and prepare for tomorrow, we're gonna be busy after all."

As the Chunin Exams draw nearer, the Third Hokage prepares to receive more Ninja from other villages. "We need more Anbu keeping an eye on these visitors, I want anything that seems suspicious reported."

He glanced at his clock, 11:30 pm, and yawned, "The exams aren't for another two weeks, and If the rate that Guy says his team is growing is true then Konoha will be one of the groups that make the biggest impression." He chuckled to himself thinking of the surprised looks that the warlords would have up seeing his Genin, "I'm looking forward to seeing who all will pass the exams this year.

_Two weeks fly by as the Chunin exams grip the minds of most of the Ninja in Konoha, will their persistent training have paid off? Find out next time on 'Story about some stuff!'_

_End of Chapter 6_


	8. Chapter 7

_**A/n: Hey guys, sorry for the late upload school has had me busy. I hope everyone is enjoying the fic so far. If anyone is worried that Ranma and Ryoga's training is going to make the Naruto Folks op, don't be, it's just going to boost them up a little, in fact I don't plan on focusing to heavily on the main cast of Naruto for much longer, they'll fade into the background after the Chunin Exams, I plan on shining the spotlight on Ranma and Ryoga as they travel through ninja land. Thanks for all of the Reviews they are appreciated, I'll only be answering one today, It's the only one that merits a response after all.**_

_**Mr. Haziq- We will see.**_

Chapter 7: Exams Begin! Ranma and Ryoga's Final Test!

"I'm gonna be late!" The orange-clad Genin yelled as he leaped out the window, "I can't flunk out of the exam before it even starts!"

Naruto quickly made his way toward the academy where Kakashi had told him to meet up with his team. As he sprinted down the, currently, quiet streets of Konoha Naruto took inventory of his current state. He was dressed, fed, and, although he was still exhausted from his daily training sessions with Kakashi-sensei and the other Jounin, brimming with energy as he made his way towards his future. He passed his favorite Ramen place without so much as a second glance and, after several minutes of high-speed maneuvering through the slowly awakening city, Naruto finally made it to the academy. As he approached the building he was surprised to find Sasuke and Sakura waiting outside of the building for him, which wasn't that unusual save for the fact that they were accompanied by Team Guy and Kurenai's group of Genin.

"Hey, I made it!" he said as he approached, glancing at the group of people he had bonded with through training he smiled, "Let's do this!"

All of the gathered Genin began to make their way towards the entrance only to come face to face with three Jounin, one of which looked overwhelmingly proud to see his team about to take the exam.

Kakashi Hatake turned towards his team, "I'm glad all three of you decided to show up if you hadn't none of you would have been able to take the exam."

Naruto gazed at Kakashi dumbfounded, only to shake his head as Sakura spoke up, "But sensei, you said that it was a personal choice about whether we participated in the exam or not." The pink haired Kunoichi tilted her head to one side, giving the Jounin a critical look.

The white-haired Shinobi nodded, "It was, but it wouldn't have only affected you, and If you or either of these two had only come because they felt obligated to, it would have been bad for the team as a whole." Kakashi glanced around him, he could tell that Kurenai was having a similar talk with her team, and Kakashi felt that Guy had probably done the same previously. He sighed, "You had better hurry in, you really can't be late."

Meanwhile, in the next building over, the Hokage's Tower, a certain (currently red-haired) martial artist stood in front of several aging ninja, all of whom were examining her with a critical eye.

"She certainly doesn't look like much," The bandaged, off-putting man who gave Ranma the creeps said, "I feel like maybe a display of her skills would be necessary to convince your advisors that she and her companion would be suitable additions to our village's shinobi force?"

Ranma let out one of her textbook self-assured grins, "What, me following one of your masked ninja spies back to your base, not to mention getting all the way to your office without being detected isn't proof enough?"

Danzo visibly reddened, whether it was embarrassment or anger was hard to tell, and almost growled out his response, "While your stealth skills are amazing, no one present save for the Hokage has seen any evidence that your combat skills are as well defined." He regained his composure, "And we have no evidence that your friend there could even infiltrate as well as you can."

If Ryoga was bothered by the comment he didn't let it show, he simply smiled goofily and scratched the back of his head. The Hokage smiled, he knew that neither boy would object to a fight. He looked around at the faces of those who had gathered, Danzo looked absolutely outraged, the head of the Hyuga looked amiably at the two boys who, depending on how well the Chunin Exams go, will have helped him to get his original Heir reinstated.

"If you would be willing to undergo a physical test to see if you are truly worthy of joining the ranks of the Shinobi, I believe there are several Jounin level Shinobi in the village who, if you handled Might Guy as easily as you say, will be an amusing gauntlet for you to run while we wait for the first stage of the Chunin Exams to end." Danzo said, looking to the Hokage to gauge his reaction to the idea.

The Hokage smiled to himself, "I don't think either of these young men will object to some battling," he said, turning towards Ranma and Ryoga, calling Ranma a man had earned several odd looks from the gathered shinoi, but Sarutobi made no move to explain, only standing and motioning for everyone to follow him.

Ranma shrugged her shoulders when she noticed Ryoga's questioning glance, "I guess we gotta rough up a few of their tough guys."

Ryoga laughed, shaking his head as he thought back to the past two weeks. After Kakashi's group joined their training sessions everyone began to improve even faster, thanks in part to Naruto constantly proclaiming that he would beat them all, and to the fact that his, and subsequently Sasuke's, growth rate was incredible, it took all of a week for him to catch up to where Neji was. Neji had then started to do everything in his power to stay ahead, which he managed to do, but it had cost him his lead on Hinata who he had begun to train with regularly, and vigorously. Tenten could now handle high-level taijutsu and was able to handle one on one spars, Taijutsu only, with Sakura. By the end of the first week, at Kakashi and Kurenai's insistence, all of the Genin had begun to work on their Chakra Control. Ranma had watched in amazement as nine teenagers all literally walked up trees before, eventually, starting to walk on water. Kurenai had even given Ranma training on how to break out of a Genjutsu, which lacking chakra, Ranma had been able to accomplish by projecting a Battle Aura. Ryoga had laughed loudly when Kurenai had pulled him aside and explained to him that he, for some reason, wasn't affected by Genjutsu. He figured it probably had something to do with his directional problems, Ranma had mentioned that the flow of Ki to his head was minimal. He was pulled out of his revery when he felt a firm grip on his shoulder, he looked and realized that Ranma had decided to steer him, they made a complete u-turn and began to make their way back to the Hokage. By the time they caught up, the Jounin that they would be fighting, surprisingly there were almost fifteen of them, were gathered in front of the Hokage.

Sarutobi was informing them that there was a training exercise for them to undergo, "You are to, in standard teams, subdue the two young men behind me."

Ranma raised her hand, "He means me and this idiot," she gestured towards Ryoga.

"Who are you calling an idiot?" Ryoga responded hitting Ranma in the back of the head.

Several of the gathered Jounin shook their head noting the dysfunction of the apparent two-man team.

"This is gonna be easy," Genma Shiranui thought to himself, "We're working with five teams completely comprised of Jounin," he noticed that one of the Jounin had a shock of white hair, and half his face covered, "Ok, and Kakashi, if we can't handle two teenagers then I will feel really bad about myself." He smiled, he doubted it would be that easy, the Hokage wouldn't have called fifteen Jounin together, while there were ninja from other villages in town, to simply beat up two teenagers. "Alright, everyone!" Genma said, he recognized everyone here, none of them were pushovers, "We need our teams to be made for maximum efficiency after they enter the forest.."

The Hokage turned to Ranma and Ryoga, "You will both have a twenty-minute head-start to go into the forest surrounding the village, just don't enter the forest surrounded by the fence. After your time ends the five teams will begin to track you. I don't want any casualties, but you can bruise and batter, if you perform well you will be presented your headbands and vests after the council comes to its senses." He turned away, appreciating the military precision that his Jounin had used, all of them had gathered into teams, and they were discussing contingencies. "Also. good luck."

Ranma turned to Ryoga, grabbed the lost-boys arm and jogged off into the forest, once they had gotten a reasonable distance away, the red head stopped, "Ok Ryoga, here's the plan, you are going to get lost in the woods, I'm going to use one of my strongest techniques to follow you, the Umi Sen Ken makes me completely undetectable to the senses, I'll take out as much of the opposition as I can from the shadows, and you handle the few that slip through."

Ryoga sighed, "Got it," the lost boy blinked as his rival disappeared before his very eyes, "Get lost huh? I think I might be able to manage that." He turned and trotted off into the woods.

Kakashi observed his team, it was composed of Genma and Asuma, two talented Ninja who he knew better than most of the others.

"So this is a strikeforce drill?" Kakashi asked Genma who had been given the low-down from the Hokage.

"We are simulating two s-rank criminals hiding in the forest outside of Konoha, who know we are coming," Was genma's reply as they jumped through the branches, he knew Kakashi had spotted the Anbu members silently moving through the trees, "Apparently Danzo thought the Anbu should be involved too."

"I can already tell you that these two are Taijutsu masters, even better than Guy by his own account," Kakashi said, "I have no idea what else they can do," He turned to look at Asuma, who was also taijutsu oriented, only to find the other Ninja missing. "Genma, it seems that Asuma has been taken out."

Genma landed on a branch, "How the hell did someone get in here, take out a Jounin, and disappear, all without the two Jounin literally standing right next to him notice?" He turned, his back meeting Kakashi's, "You might want to use your other eye for this Hatake."

Kakashi was one step ahead of his companion, he quickly lifted his headband up to his forehead, he gasped as he realized that Ranma was standing not five feet away, her face looked amused at the fact that she had gotten this close to a pair of Jounin.

"That is amazing," Kakashi thought to himself as Ranma began to advance, "She's not even causing the branches to move." He prepared to counter whatever attack Ranma made.

"God Damn Ninja!" Ryoga yelled, as he literally swatted a kunai out of the air, "This is the third group!" He quickly flung two razor sharp Bandanna into the trees. He sighed as he felt the shuriken connect with his arm, they bounced off harmlessly and he kept going, but that just meant that the team had split up. He knew they would attempt to make it a close combat fight once they realized that the weapons weren't working and as if on queue two Jounin appeared out of the trees, one from the front one from behind, both were obviously good, just not up to snuff. Ryoga pivoted on the spot, his umbrella adding even more force to the spin, it connected solidly with the flanking Ninja's head, knocking the Jounin out cold. Ryoga then somersaulted over the ninja that had originally approached from the front. He lashed out with a kick, barely missing the Ninja's head. The ninja rolled away before jumping up, his hands almost a blur.

"Kaze Bakuhatsu!" he cried, as he launched a small ball of air at Ryoga, it connected with his chest, causing a compressive force to launch him backward. He pivoted in the air, landing on his feet, before wincing slightly.

"That's gonna bruise," he thought to himself before sprinting forward, dispatching the ninja that had just caused him to explode, "Damn it Ranma, where the hell are you?"

Ranma looked into Kakashi's eyes and noticed that Kakashi was looking back, she paused, his right eye was an odd red color, and he could obviously see Ranma. Ranma shrugged, blurring forward, causing Kakashi to shove Genma out of the way, as Ranma's fist passed through the air where the man had been. Ranma dropped the Umi Sen Ken technique and faced Kakashi.

"What's with the eye?" The redhead asked, she looked him up and down before disappearing and materializing behind the stunned ninja, he front-flipped forward hoping to avoid the fist he knew was aiming for his spine. He turned mid-air and launched a barrage of weapons, Kunai and Shuriken. He landed, and using his sharingan was able to determine that the next attack would land, roughly, fifty times simultaneously all over his body, he simply sighed. "That's interest-" he was cut off as his body was peppered with blows from all sides, Ranma looked smug until Kakashi exploded into a cloud of smoke, a log exploding into shards as it was demolished by the attack. She looked around to find that Genma had also escaped, "Damn, I always relish the chance to smack around someone named the same as the old panda."

Ryoga smiled, the last opponent was in front of him, they were obviously related to Neji and Hinata, the trademark eyes of the Hyuga clan gave that away. He looked into the pupiless eyes of the Jounin in front of him, "So, ready to give up?" He gestured to all of the unconscious ninja surrounding himself. Suddenly the unnamed Hyuga leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding Ranma's kick from above, and behind.

Ranma laughed, "How the hell'd you see that coming? I mean, come on, it's not fair to me if you can dodge even my sneak attacks." She leaped forward, blitzing the helpless Hyuga, only to be blocked by two Kakashis. One grabbed the Hyuga, "Strategic retreat," he simply said before jumping away, the other blocking them from following. Ranma smiled, then sat down, "Good job Ryoga, almost nine Jounin by yourself." Ranma shook her head, "That last group kept avoiding me." He sighed, I guess the test is over? I mean I did take out all of the masked guys you neglected to mention too." Kakashi's clone nodded, before saying, "You are simply incredible." It promptly disappeared into a cloud of smoke leaving Ranma and Ryoga on their own, they began to make the trek back into the village.

Naruto Uzumaki grinned widely, "I can't believe I made it through the written portion of the Exam without answering a single question!" he thought to himself. He looked around at his teammates, noticing that so far all of the leaf-genin that he knew had made it through the first part. They were all currently gathered around a fenced in forest.

"This," Anko said, " Is the forest of death, and if any of you want to drop out now, you'd better. This next part is where killing is allowed."

Naruto spoke up, "You think that will scare me!" he stood up straighter, "I've been through life or death situations before!" His eyes widened slightly as he moved his head to the side, the Kunai that would have grazed his cheek just barely missing.

"Woah, I wouldn't have even seen that a couple of weeks ago," he thought to himself, he noticed the surprised looks on several of the other Ninja's faces, Anko actually looked impressed.

"As I was saying before someone decided to make an even bigger target of themselves," Anko continued, "This forest is filled with dangerous animals, and of course you ninja." She turned back to the group, Each of you will receive a scroll, and…"

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, "When did that idiot actually get good at something?" he thought to himself. He glanced around himself, noticing that like himself most of the Genin were surprised, he did note, however, that Naruto's teammates, Kiba's group, and the older leaf Genin Neji Hyuga, and his teammates, didn't even blink. "Ok, what the heck is going on there?" He thought to himself, it's almost like they had expected him to dodge that." He internalized the information, "It seems like we really are the weakest group here," He sighed audibly. Anko looked at him, "Am I boring you?" She asked loudly, causing Shikamaru to shake his head, "I really don't need to have to deal with woman problems on top of what has been happening lately." he thought to himself.

The Hokage simply nodded, he had expected as much, if this had been real, they would have lost a large portion of his Jounin to this attack.

"Now do you see the merits of having them on our side?" He asked his council, he received an almost simultaneous nod from every member, they were stunned that two unknown teens had bested a force of Jounin who had the home-field advantage. Danzo was sulking, once again the Anbu he had dispatched had been humiliated. The Hokage turned to Ranma and Ryoga, offering them each the Vests and forehead protectors he had already prepared for them, "I think we have a mission for you already."

Ranma smiled, she wondered what it would be.

Naruto stared at his scroll, "I wonder what it says?" he said to Sakura, they were heading towards the tower, confident in their abilities to subdue another team.

Hinata observed her surroundings using the Byakugan, she had spotted and avoided Neji's squad and was currently leading her team towards a group of Ninja from Takigakure, The Village Hidden in the Waterfall, they didn't seem too powerful.

Orochimaru licked his lips, Sasuke Uchiha was powerful indeed, he had been preparing to ambush them only to find himself counter ambushed. He had dispatched the annoying orange boy with one of his giant summons, leaving himself and the Uchiha alone. He knew the curse mark wouldn't kill the boy he was ready to prepare his next vessel.

_**A/n: I suck at cliffhangers, Big Sasuke and Orochimaru fight next chapter, as well as the end of the second part of the Chunin Exams, all that will be left is the Big Sandvillage betrayal and then we'll diverge into Ranma and Ryoga's adventures a little more.**_


	9. Chapter 8

_**A/n: Thanks for all of the feedback, I took some of the ideas to heart, and will now put a line break between character jumps, but only if it's not a character who would reasonably need a line break to make it smoother! This is one of the longer chapters I've done, and I'm hoping you all enjoy it. It isn't Ranma heavy, it is me trying to make sure the Chunin Exams don't stretch out into some sort of multiple episode fiasco! I literaly fit all of stage two and the preliminaries in. If you don't like how the battles ended then let me know and be ignored, because tha's whattle happen.**_

Chapter 8: Orochimaru's Attack! The Chunin Exams Come to a Close!

Sasuke Uchiha stared wide-eyed as the futility of his struggling set in, his Sharingan had shown him the extent of this unknown Ninja's strength. He looked, panic-stricken at Sakura, "You've got to get out of here!"

He quickly launched several Kunai at the Ninja opposite them, he wasn't surprised when they were casually knocked away, he simply prepared for a counterattack, one he knew he had no chance of withstanding. Suddenly from the bushes, his flamboyant orange jumpsuit demolishing his stealth almost as effectively as his shouts was Naruto Uzumaki, followed by several dozen other Naruto Uzumakis. All of them rushed at the ninja who had his friends backed into a corner.

"Leave my friends alone!" came the cry of the wall of blonde hair and orange fabric as he rushed into the fray, not even stopping as his front line of defense was demolished by the large snake that the pale ninja had summoned. The multiple clouds of smoke confirming his suspicion as to the nature of these clones.

"Damn it!" Orochimaru thought to himself, "I can't kill the _Jinchūriki_ here, I'm already being hunted by the Akatsuki for enough." Outwardly he observed the newest addition to their standoff with disdain, while inside he was less than pleased that he couldn't kill another of the gathered ninja, albeit for different reasons than with the Uchiha. His gaze settled on the pink-haired Kunoichi. Murderous intent was obvious in his eyes.

Sakura for her part was unaware of just how much of a threat the lone Ninja was, she knew that Sasuke seemed to be afraid, and that was an indicator that he was dangerous, but she was feeling confident that the three of them together could handle one lone ninja especially after all of the training they had been through over the last several weeks. She smirked to herself, reaching for a Kunai when suddenly Sasuke was standing in front of her, protecting her from the multiple Kunai she hadn't even realized the Ninja had thrown.

Naruto used the lapse in the ninja's attention to attack from the side, aiming a kick at the man's head. He blanched when not only was his kick easily caught, but he was flung forward into Sasuke, who along with Naruto landed in a heap on top of Sakura. Naruto stood, dusted himself off, and standing shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke, got into a battle stance.

"Naruto we should run," came the obviously shaken voice of Sasuke, he grabbed Naruto's shoulder, trying to pull him to retreat, "You don't understand how strong he is."

Naruto never took his eyes off of Orochimaru, "It doesn't matter how strong the enemy is, or how weak you think I am," Naruto's eyes narrowed, suddenly he twisted a full three-sixty planting a punch into Sasuke's jaw, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, next Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, and I do not back down!"

Orochimaru licked his lips, "Next Hokage huh?" He thought to himself, "I thought that too once, then that yellow bastard took my rightful position." He began to laugh, prompting Naruto to yell in outrage.

Sasuke looked up at Naruto, his face red from the impact of the blonde boy's fist, "Damn it Naruto, he'll kill you!"

Naruto simply shrugged, "If he's as strong as you say, what makes you think we can outrun him, I for one would rather go down fighting like a Ninja of the Leaf, like the hero's on the shrine than die running like a coward." He turned back to Orochimaru, summoning several shadow clones at the same time, "An I definitely won't let some snake guy stop me from becoming a Chunin!" As his clones began to charge the ninja in front of him, he noticed that Sasuke had lowered his head, his hands balled into fists.

Sasuke fought with himself for a moment, he hadn't been this afraid since he had found his brother standing over his families corpses, the thought made something click in him, "What's the point of fighting to become stronger if I run away from challenges?" He said aloud, his resolve hardening, he charged forward, side-by-side with his rival. He launched several Kunai at the ninja, who plucked them out of the air without looking, using them to dispatch several of Naruto's shadow clones in the process.

Orochimaru smiled, not only was his chosen host stronger than anticipated, his resolve made it all the more likely that he would survive the curse mark. He began to chuckle to himself as he took out some of his built up anger on the clones standing around.

"He's strong, probably stronger than Kakashi sensei!" Sakura said looking on from the side, she sighed to herself, "Guess I've got to help." She ran into the fray, weaving through the steadily diminishing mass of clones. As she neared the man, she noticed that he was standing calmly in the center of the mass of Narutos, a neat circle devoid of clones around him. Standing directly in front of the ninja she noticed a bruised and battered Sasuke, and the real Naruto, similarly beat up, both standing in defensive stances. She was surprised to hear them talking, she had decided to sneak as close as possible and was now in earshot.

"Oh, you still think this is about the Chunin exams?" The tall, pale ninja said licking his lips again, "Oh please, I'm here in order to get revenge on the fool Itachi." Orochimaru smiled broader, he knew of the animosity that the younger Uchiha felt towards his brother, he hoped that pretending to come to kill Sasuke for revenge only to find out that Sasuke felt the same way would make the boy easier to sway to his side, especially after he offered to make the boy stronger.

Sasuke's eyes widened, "Who are you? What do you know about my brother?" The anger was apparent in the Uchiha's voice, "Why do you also wish to kill him?"

Sakura and Naruto both looked puzzled for a moment, "Wasn't Sasuke the only Uchiha?" Naruto thought to himself, then he remembered Sasuke's words the day that they had met Kakashi, "There is someone I want to kill huh?"

Orochimaru's laughter made Naruto's skin crawl as he looked Sasuke up and down, "Ahh you see my weak little friend," He emphasized the word weak by launching several Kunai into the crowd of clones faster than Sasuke could follow, "I am Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin, and I have personal reasons to hate your dear brother. And," Suddenly Orochimaru's neck extended faster than any of the three Genin could follow his fangs clamping down on Sasuke's neck, "I believe so do you, come to find me if you wish to get stronger." After Sasuke collapsed, he turned to Naruto, "And I think I have something to so here as well.

Naruto stood, dumbfounded for a moment before aiming a punch at Orochimaru, who easily caught his fist, before lifting him up and looking at his stomach. "Of course these seals are extensive, let's just," He slammed all five of his fingers into Naruto's stomach, a black ring of tiny script appearing around the other symbols on him, "Take care of this!" He turned towards Sakura and threw Naruto at her before taking off into the trees, cackling the entire time.

Sakura sat an unconscious Naruto on top of her, Sasuke laying several feet away, shaking and sweating profusely. 

* * *

Ranma stood beside Guy-sensei, holding his headband in one hand, he had discarded the vest, the extra bulk slowed him down in the air, and he was trying to figure out the best way to wear the thing without messing up his hair. He turned to Guy, but stopped himself from asking for fashion advice from the Green-clad Jounin.

"So how d'ya think they're doing?" he finally asked the older man, "I mean I'm not really worried about Lee or Neji, but some of the others might not fare too well in a real combat situation."

Guy simply stood, stoically looking into the sunset, before finally saying, "We'll find out soon enough, they only have two more days before they're out of time."

Ranma sighed, it had really been three days since he had become a Jounin for the Village, he and Ryouga had been training non-stop after the test in the forest, Ranma had gone to Kakashi to learn more about the weird eye stuff he and the Hyuuga could do. He thought it was like cheating, but if he could do it he'd definitely use it too, so he wanted to be prepared to face it in battle. He was still shocked by the fact that the KIDS he had trained were now literally fighting to the death with other kids to see who could become a Chunin, which he had been told was like a promotion, and that they still might not advance anyway. He had discussed it in depth with the Hokage, given his argument about how wrong it was, but he'd been ignored on this point. He finally came to understand that it was a eat or be eaten world after his and Ryoga's first mission, which was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission, turned into an ambush for the pair, while they easily fought off the attackers, the fact that they were so ready to kill Ranma and Ryoga had made him realize that if these kids were going to be out here, then they had to be prepared.

"Do you really think that vest looks good on ya?" Ranma finally said turning to Ryoga who had decided to stack the vest on top of his already tacky outfit.

"Of course, I mean come on it's a symbol of the station too." Was all Ryoga said in reply.

Ranma sighed, shaking his head, the more he learned about his rival the more he realized he actually didn't hate the guy, he may be a violent idiot, and not know his right from his rear, but he was a genuinely righteous person, with an Honor code similar to Ranma's, even if the lost boy was more inclined to break his.

He decided to let the subject rest for the moment, he wasn't prepared to argue with the Pig-boy about his fashion choices at the moment, he didn't particularly care anyway, the only part of his looks he was concerned with was his hair, and the damn thing wasn't visible if he wore it on his forehead, and he wasn't willing to change his style. "Maybe a belt, like Guy does?" He pondered the idea, shaking his head, "I would just be too loose when I changed shapes, and then it would become a battle liability." He turned reluctantly to Guy, "How do ya think I should wear this? I don't want it to muss up my hair, but I don't think belt style would work."

Guy gave Ranma a look that implied he was thinking deeply, "I suppose you could wrap it wear it around your neck, it has been done that way on occasion, I believe Neji's younger cousin did something similar did she not?"

Ranma looked thoughtful for a moment before tying the Leaf Symbol around his neck, he knew it wouldn't choke him when he changed forms, and if someone was able to grab it then he probably already had a knife in his neck. He examined his reflection in a nearby window, not too shabby Saotome not too shabby. He was satisfied for now with the look, unless it proved to be a problem in a fight he'd probably not bother changing it.

* * *

Sakura looked at the three sound shinobi she was at a disadvantage in a three on one, she knew that she could probably take one of them on in a fair fight, but there was no way she could take all three. She grasped a Kunai, launching it with pinpoint accuracy at the hunched over Ninja, for him to block it with his metal gauntlet. He chuckled, infuriating Sakura, even more, she looked around, trying to find any way out of the situation, she knew she couldn't leave her teammates behind, she spotted movement in the trees around her, and sighed,"Of course there's someone else out there, why not make it a four on one?" Suddenly out of the trees a green blur appeared, landing between Sakura and the three sound ninja, leaves swirling around him. Rock Lee shot Sakura his version of a winning smile, the twinkle on his tooth identical to Guy's, his trademark nice-guy pose already on display. Sakura's eyes lit up, she knew he would help her, she could tell he was a nice guy (from his pose?) he had always been kind to her during their training, and he was the only one that got to spar directly with Ranma-chan.

"Lee-kun!" She said, "I'm so glad you're here!"

Rock Lee's look of absolute happiness was brief and quickly replaced by righteous fury. "Of course my lovely friend, for I Rock Lee will always appear when the tides of youth begin to turn in favor of the enemy!" He looked at his opponents, noticing the looks he was receiving from the sound ninja he burned even brighter.

"I see you are also one of the Leaf's weak-willed ninja!" Said the leader of the three, despite his shortness, "I hope you aren't as boring to play with as this other one was. He looked over at his taller companion, "If you wish to teach this thick-browed idiot the strength of the sound village, be my guest." The taller ninja stepped forward, cracking his neck as he did, he only made it a few steps, however, before Rock Lee disappeared completely from view the Sound ninja collapsed where he stood, completely, and Rock Lee reappeared several yards behind them. He bounced a little up and down on his feet, smiling. "Even with twice the weight, I had before I'm still so much faster!" He laughed to himself as the sound ninja stared, the girl's jaw had dropped, and she was beginning to back away the other one simply dropped his scroll, gathered his friend and made a break for it.

"I am sorry Sakura, but I think that this scroll belongs to me and my team if I didn't have other obligations I would gladly let you have it, but I think that due to the circumstances it is only fair," He then saluted, and without another word disappeared.

* * *

Shikamaru was dumbfounded, how did someone like that compare to the genius of his class? He looked up worriedly, Sakura had almost noticed them, and he had had to stop Ino of all people from jumping in to help her Rival, but then maybe she had hoped to ingratiate herself with Sasuke, girls were difficult to understand and more trouble than they were worth after all. He sighed, "we really are the weakest team out here huh?" Choji nodded, and Ino looked affronted, but only slightly.

* * *

Neji smiled when Lee reappeared, right on time and holding a scroll, "I see you had more success than us?" He said prompting Lee to nod vigorously.

* * *

Sakura sighed, it only took about an hour before Sasuke woke up, and another hour or so after that for Naruto to also come back to consciousness. Upon seeing both of his friends unharmed, he was glad, and he was pumped to see that they still had their scroll, "Let's go get us a scroll!" he yelled jumping up into the air.

* * *

Hinata smiled the team that she had been trailing with Kiba and Shino had finally set up camp, their plan was to attack as soon as they were settled down, the first team had the wrong scroll so they left the Grass ninja alone, deciding to not risk losing their own scroll after all. When she noticed they were done, noting all of the traps that had been set she directed Kiba to his position, using Akamaru's sense of hearing to whisper his orders even from a distance, while she communicated with Shino through the use of the bugs he had placed on her. When everyone was in position she charged in, quickly taking out the Ninja that had been leaning on a tree, the lookout for their group. She searched him for the scroll, finding nothing, and reported it to the others, after a quick scuffle, Kiba turned up the scroll they needed, and they were on their way towards the tower post-haste.

As the sky darkened Hinata noticed that there were a lot more ninja here than farther from the tower, she got momentarily distracted when she noticed that Naruto was running towards the tower, a scroll in each hand, and realized that she would likely have to face him in the future. Upon arriving at the tower, she noticed that all of the teams that had trained with Ranma were present, as well as the other team with Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji. She smiled to herself glad that her friends were doing well.

Naruto looked around, surprised to that the lazy bum, Ino, and the fatty had made it, what kind of secret stuff did they have to do to make it this far? He was less surprised to see the teams that had trained with Ranma there however, he was disappointed when he noticed that his friend Kabuto hadn't shown up yet, but his worries quickly faded as he noticed the Genin entering the building, two scrolls in hand. He looked around, brimming with energy, as they were directed to the appropriate area to open their scrolls.

* * *

Ranma was in town, it was the middle of the day, and somehow he had been able to stay male since he had departed Guy's company. He looked over at Kakashi and Kurenai, who had agreed to help him learn to battle Genjutsu, and noticed that they were both flickering slightly, "Geez, already cast the thing huh?" He expanded his battle aura, the two Jounin disappearing, and having shifted several feet to their right, were preparing to throw Kunai at him.

"Good job Saotome-kun," The white-haired ninja said, his earnest smile apparent even through his mask, "you're definitely getting better that's for sure."

Ranma smiled, apparently, his battle aura was great at getting through Genjutsu and he could project one the moment he realized he was in the thing, the problem was noticing the subtle things that changed when it came to some Genjutsu, if he thought there was no danger then he'd just stand there and get pounded. He sighed if he'd been any later that would have been his loss, something he didn't like to admit, so he didn't. He turned when he felt Guy's ki signature approaching, "What's up Guy!"

The taijutsu master smiled, "They all made it!"

* * *

A while later, Naruto stood upon the balcony overlooking the "Preliminary matches" Sasuke was facing off against of Kabuto's teammates, he was still upset that the white-haired ninja had withdrawn, but he wasn't overly worried about Sasuke's chances. He was right, even though Kakashi had basically barred the use of Ninjutsu, Sasuke blitzed the other Ninja, quickly knocking his opponent out. Naruto laughed, he knew that none of the other Genin would be able to keep up with them, Ranma was an unorthodox weirdo, but he was strong. He readied himself for the next match. He was confused when Kakashi led Sasuke away instead of coming back up but was quickly brought back to the present by the match, the Sound guy that Lee had, apparently, beaten easily was next up and was rather cocky as he was tying one arm behind his back. He was however easily defeated, the bugs under Shino's control literally caused the guy's arms to explode.

* * *

Kakashi had just finished sealing the cursed mark when he was visited by Orochimaru, he was surprised and very willing to die protecting his pupil, but he was glad when after a brief chat, amounting to the usual creepy stalker stuff, the Sannin left.

* * *

Rock Lee stared in amazement and disgust as he watched the ninja literally wrap himself around the sand ninja, he was amazed that such a thing was possible, and was even more surprised when the man made good on his threat to snap the younger boys neck if he didn't forfeit. What was even more surprising was that the Sand Nin was actually a puppet, and Lee was horrified even more when the Leaf ninja's bones began to audibly crunch. He looked at Guy-sensei who looked equally disturbed but also was slightly approving of his convictions.

Sakura Haruno smiled broadly when instead of someone random, she was matched up against her rival, the tiny Sakura she was convinced was her conscience told her that after all of her training she would be able to easily defeat her ex-friend. She was looking forward to proving that little voice right. She leaped proudly into the ring, looking over at her rival, who to her dismay was speaking frantically with her teammates. She looked directly into Sakura's eyes, and forfeited.

* * *

Rock Lee looked over at Tenten, disappointed that he was not next but glad for his friend. She looked over at her opponent, Temari of the Sand, and opened up with her best move, a bomb of weapons, she was quality, and quantity girl so all of the attacks were right on target, however, the other girl waved her fan, knocking them all away. Tenten blanched, the only people to have ever gotten rid of all of her attacks that easily were Neji and Ranma, Ryoga just took them, and the next thing that she knew she was being blown into the air by the wind that the other girl was creating. She smiled, thinking back to what she had learned from Ranma and Ryoga she quickly spun around in the air launching Kunai the entire time, these were thrown with more force than the bomb had created, almost making it to Temari before finally being knocked off course. Tenten tried once again to change direction, using he Chakra to push the air under her but realized that it was a losing battle. She winced as she landed hard on the giant fan that the other girl carried, almost blacking out from the force behind it, she was immobile long enough to hear Temari call her trash, but not long enough for the moderator to call the match, she spun in place, still suspended on the fan, using her arms to propel he feet directly into the other girls face. She quickly leaped over the sand ninja, her fist connecting several times, sadly it only connected with the fan, she winced once more as she was knocked into the air by the force of the wind, quickly trying to adjust her course, she managed to land away from the other girl, sending several Kunai flying at the same time. Temari finally stopped smiling, this wasn't supposed to be a challenge for her, she gave her fan one last swing, creating a literal tornado around her opponent.

Tenten felt her breathing becoming more difficult, and could see the dark lines around her vision, she knew she had several bruised ribs, and possibly a concussion. She didn't want to surrender, she couldn't surrender, as she began to raise her hand she collapsed, the darkness setting in around her.

Might Guy appeared suddenly in the midst of the Tornado, it dispelled as he waved an arm. "She is unconscious," he simply said before lifting up his pupil and carrying her to the medical ninja.

* * *

Shikamaru looked over at his opponent, he sadly hadn't seen her fight when they were watching Sakura, but she had been the first to run when Lee showed up so hopefully, she wouldn't be too strong. He watched her closely, before striking suddenly, without prior warning the girl was quickly trapped by his shadow. He sighed as he began to stretch, noting the confused look on her face as she could no longer control her own body. He slowly walked the girl closer, she was taller than him and outstretched her arms. "Perfect he thought to himself, her arms are longer too. He then leaped backward, before punching himself in the face as hard as he could stopping just short of making contact, the shocking thing was that the girl didn't stop short, her fist connected, again and again, until finally, she fell over, unconscious. He looked up at his sensei, noting the pride in his eyes, before shrugging, if it had been any more work he'd have called it quits.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki was excited when his name showed up, even if his opponent was Kiba, he originally thought that the dog-boy was loud and annoying but he had revised his opinion somewhat since he had trained with him. The slightly taller boy was a loyal companion and Naruto held no ill will towards him.

"Sorry Kiba, you just had to get matched against me huh?" Naruto said looking the hooded boy in the eyes, "I'm going to be the next Hokage after all, and no one is going to stand in my way!" He pulled out a Kunai, preparing to fight.

For his part, Kiba was pretty calm, he knew that Naruto had improved but so had he, and Akamaru as well. "Two on one isn't really good odds for ya 'Ruto." He replied, Akamaru leaping down from Kiba's jacket, growling and baring his teeth.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto put his fingers together, making the shadow clone seal. Suddenly standing directly next to Naruto was an exact replica of the boy, "Let's even the odds!"

Hinata looked down into the ring, she was conflicted, on one hand, she wanted to cheer for Naruto, but Kiba was her teammate. She sighed, whoever won she supposed.

Kiba charged forward, he was confident in his own Taijutsu skills after training with Ranma and Ryoga, even if Naruto had too. He was moving incredibly fast for a genin only a few of those watching could keep up, sadly Naruto was one of those that had little difficulty tracking and matching his speed. As he neared the blonde genin he began to flow through his most practiced hand signs, he felt a slight drain on his chakra as Akamaru who had been slightly ahead of transformed into an exact replica of Kiba, both attacking in unison. Kiba launched a series of attacks at Naruto's head, all of which were blocked, before sweeping Naruto's feet out from under him. He heard a loud puffing noise as Akamaru defeated the shadow clone, and he smiled at his best friend.

Naruto used that distraction to gain some distance, launching several kunai at Kiba and Akamaru. He rolled as he landed, using his momentum as Ranma had demonstrated, and bouncing into the wall, he summoned some clones, each one pushing him away from the wall faster and faster, he pulled back his fist, nailing one of the Kiba's in the face, he wasn't sure which one he'd lost track during his roll, and received several blows to the body for his efforts.

Twin puffs of smoke erupted as the Naruto disappeared along with the form of Akamaru rolling across the floor, Kiba lunging to catch his friend. One of the Narutos in the center laughed as the others disappeared, he looked at Kiba leaning over Akamaru, hoping that the dog was out of the fight, only to see Kiba muttering as he fed the dog a small pill.

"Hey! What're ya doin?" Naruto yelled at his temporary enemy, worried as Akamaru began to glow red.

Kiba turned, smirking, "Soldier Pill," he said simply before Akamaru disappeared, biting Naruto on the ankle, drawing blood. Naruto yelp, flailing his leg outward trying to dislodge the dog, summoning several clones to halt Kiba's advance. Naruto began to frantically shake his leg, while his clones tried their best to stop Kiba from getting closer. Unfortunately lacking durability the clones only managed to do a little damage, they did manage to hold Kiba off long enough, he saw a blur flying towards him, he blocked it feeling the fur he hugged onto his friend, only to realize that Akamaru was no longer red, he looked over at where Naruto had been to see the blonde boy smirking, despite the fact that he still had a dog clamped down on his leg. He flipped Kiba the bird as he exploded into a cloud of smoke, the Dog he was holding suddenly exploded into smoke and he felt a fist slam into his face the orange glad genin wasted no time summoning several clones, all of whom kicked Kiba into the air. He laughed as he leaped into the air, summoning several more clones as they kicked Kiba toward the ground.

Rock Lee watched amazed as the younger boy did a interesting facsimile of his Front Lotus, he winced as Kiba impacted the ground cracking the concrete and laughed out loud as he heard Naruto yelling out his attack name, "Naruto Uzumaki Barrage!"

Hinata smiled despite herself, she was happy for Naruto even if she was worried about her friend, she jumped down into the ring, holding out medicine towards her teammate. Kiba looked at her, then over her shoulder and smiled, "Kick his butt," He then closed his eyes leaving a confused Hinata to look over her shoulders, she looked uncertain for a moment before her eyes hardened.

* * *

Neji Hyuga looked down at his cousin, "Well Hinata-chan, it is a shame that your test would end this way, I hope you will make this interesting, although I have no doubt you will put up a valiant fight."

Hinata observed her relative, smiling lightly to herself she activated her Byakugan going into the stance of the Gentle Fist, "Come Aniki, don't hold back because we're family."

"Wouldn't dream of it!" He replied, taking the same stance, he launched himself at Hinata, palms colliding as they matched each other blow for blow, Neji's Byakugan showed him that he had a leg up, however, he was succeeding in landing more blows than his counterpart. He smiled, as one of her attacks connected, this one failing to shut down his chakra point. They continued like this for several minutes, each so accustom to sparring that they read the others move without the Byakugan. They disengaged, Neji realized that Hinata could no longer use the chakra points in her arms, but he had similarly lost the usage of one of his. He was surprised when instead of waiting to catch her breath Hinata charged back into the fray, he was less surprised to see that she was now using the technique that Ranma had spent the time to teach each of the Hyuga's alone, apparently it was a "soft style" like the Gentle Fist, one that didn't require the use of chakra, called Judo or "Gentle Way" it was uniquely suited to work as a fallback could they not use their Byakugan or their Chakra. He smiled, it was a grappling school, with a focus on striking vital areas. He too switched over to Judo, leaping forward as Hinata's smaller frame gave her a slight advantage. In moment Neji found himself on the ground, his arm being wrenched by cross-lock. He could see his ligaments straining, but he was strong, he bent his body, grabbing onto his other hand, and lifted Hinata up, before slamming her back down into the ground. She gasped and let go, rolling away from her older cousin. She came to a stop several yards away, bouncing back up onto her feet, before once again running for her enemy.

Kurenai looked at her pupil with pride, to see how far the girl had come in the last month, all of her students had made her proud. She watched as, despite her fatigue, the young ninja powered through, never backing down, when Naruto began to cheer for her the Younger Hyuga even managed to do some damage to Neji.

Neji Hyuga smiled, this opening was perfect, his ribs hurt, his legs were wobbly, despite everything he knew he would win, his fist flashed out, jamming his index and middle fingers into Hinata's temple. "Well fought Hinata-chan," he said as she collapsed and he laid her gently onto the ground. He stood proudly, not because he had triumphed, but because they together had shown the pride of the Hyuga clan. He calmly exited returned to the stand, noting the look of pride on his Sensei's face, and, even from Lee, looks of admiration.

Gaara of the Sand looked over at the green glad ninja who leaped down into the "arena" if he had speeds matching what the Uchiha boy had shown, then perhaps he might have some fun. His body crumbled into sand particles as he reappeared in front of the other boy.

"I am Rock Lee of the Hidden Lead!" Lee said enthusiastically, "It is nice to meet you!" He saluted before leaping backward looking towards the mediator for the silent signal to begin. At the signal, Lee jumped into the air, dodging the stream of sand that had been directed at him, and landed neatly behind his opponent. He continued to dodge feeling out the offensive capabilities of the red-haired ninja. "He is quite powerful," he thought to himself as he narrowly dodged another sand stream. He glanced at his opponent, who hadn't moved yet, and noticed no signs of strain, "And good control."

Lee decided to attack, he moved in, not going full speed, and kicked at the Ninja's head, his foot stopped inches short, prompting the first reaction he'd gotten thus far, Lee spun away as he felt the sand around his foot begin to harden, and was amazed that he could both attack and defend simultaneously. He did multiple backflips into a handspring, landing on the statue in the center of the room as a literal 'wave' of sand smashed into the ground, converting the arena into a mock desert. He blurred, landing on the ground before he realized his mistake, the sand completely surrounding him.

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara cried as the ball of sand surrounding the boy constricted, he smirked before giving a puzzled look. As the sand fell away, he was disappointed to not see a red smear, or even a body, only two weights. His surprise was cut short as, for the first time in his life, Gaara of the Sand was kicked into a wall hard enough to cause a crater.

Temari was shocked, "He got hit," she whispered to herself, looking over at Kankuro noticing a similar look of shock, and concern, not for Gaara but for the boy in the ring with him. The sand began to churn and it rose, creating a wall between the audience and the contenders.

Rock Lee looked around himself. He could no longer even see the match proctor, much less his teammates and friends, he looked over towards the young Shinobi in front of him, who was struggling to his feet. He began to dodge attacks from all directions, feeling himself begin to tire, He would have died long ago if he hadn't removed his weights. He began to close in on the Sand ninja when he felt his leg get snagged from below, he face planted his arm becoming similarly restricted, and he pushed off as hard as he could, feeling his arm snap from the force of the sand holding him, grateful that his leg had held up. He jumped as high as he could into the air, avoiding the sand, and sighed, "Sensei told me not to use this unless I had to, and I can tell this opponent is out for blood," the Lotus of the Leaf thought to himself, as he pushed his speed to the limit, launching himself at the Shinobi of the Sand. He appeared right below his enemy, kicking him into the air, "Primary Lotus!" he yelled as he unsealed the first Gate, he felt the power running through his veins as he sped up faster than he'd ever gone before. He blurred, reappearing below the still falling Shinobi, catching him on his outstretched hand, who upon impact spread out onto the ground, collapsing into a pile of sand. He observed his surroundings, opening the second Gate he felt the pain in his arm subside, and he ran through the wall of sand, which had begun to enclose him. He burst through on the other side, close to Naruto's team, and almost as soon as he was spotted, he was gone, almost teleporting to the opposite side of the area, slamming his fist into the Sand Shinobi who's face caved in, Lee Looked on in horror, not expecting his strength to have grow so much with the gates, his shock turned to relief and then panic as the sand ninja's body began to flow around his arm and leg, he tried to power away, but his shock from before had made him lose the gates, and they had worn out his body, he cried out as he felt his good arm crack, along with his leg. He cried out in pain, collapsing as he was let go by the sand.

Temari let out a sigh of relief, "I guess Gaara calmed down."

Lee rolled away, powering through the pain in his leg and arms, and came up swinging, he knew it was futile, he had taken to much damage, but he wasn't going to go down without putting up more of a fight. He knew he could've won had he come into this fight determined to end it. Looking at his opponent, the fires of youth burning in his eyes he looked at his sensei, whose look of concern mixed with his pride in his pupil, and he nodded at Lee.

Rock smiled, he began to run, stopping in the middle of the sand covered arena long enough to perform a leaf whirlwind so intensely that the sand was scattered, leaving a perfect circle of exposed rock on the ground. Not missing a beat, he charged his opponent, who summoned a large sand hand to reach towards the approaching Lee. Lee ducked under the hand, pouring on all of his speed before stopping directly behind his opponent, kicking him violently backward towards the center. As Gaara was launched airborne, Lee disappeared, suddenly floating underneath the Shinobi from the Sand, his bandages trailing behind him. He smiled as they wrapped around his enemy, and began to spin, impacting the ground violently, the last thing Lee remembered seeing before he could hang on no longer, was the cork from Gaara's gourd landing on the ground, and the sight of the Sand shinobi sitting comfortably in a pile of red-tinted sand.

**_Sorry for the Cliffhanger, and for updating early, hope ya don't mind!_**


	10. Chapter 9

**_A/n: Sorry for a short chapter today! You forgive me right? Ohh, well. By Popular demand, plus I planned it, from here on out the chapters will be Ranma and Ryoga focused. I know where I am going from here, and I want to know if Ranma and Ryoga should accompany Jiraya and Naruto to get Tsunade or if I should just write a side adventure for them?_**

Chapter 9: Ranma vs. Kabuto! The Hokage's Decree

Ranma backflipped out of Ryoga's reach, lashing out with a kick to force his Rival to stop approaching. He quickly blocked the Kunai that Ryoga had thrown at him, they had both started using the tools and dashed forward planting his fist firmly in Ryoga's stomach, nocking the lost boy away. Not wanting to lose momentum he followed up, speeding behind Ryoga and sweeping his feet out from underneath him. Ryoga hand-sprung away, landing next to a tree and launched a _Shishi Hōkōdan _at Ranma, the Ki blast lit up the woods briefly blinding Ranma and slamming him into a tree several meters behind him. He recovered quickly, preparing to reply with a blast of his own when suddenly several Anbu appeared in the clearing.

"The Hokage has requested your presence," the lead ninja said, bowing slightly to the pair, "He says it is urgent."

Ranma looked at Ryoga before turning back to the Anbu, "Alright, I was just about to finish wiping the floor with this idiot anyway," He then jumped up into the trees, leaping towards the village, before stopping and returning to Ryoga.

"Ohh, no Ranma, your not spl-" Ryoga was cut off as Ranma dumped some cold water onto his head, and proceeded to jump away carrying the small black piglet towards the Hokage's Building.

Ranma landed on the roof of the Academy, stopped briefly to admire the stone carving of past Hokages, and then entered the Hokage's building. He stopped to turn Ryoga back into a person, and then entered the main office.

"Hello Ranma, Ryoga I trust the last several days has been rewarding for your wanderlust?" The Hokage asked the pair had been completing missions that took them far outside Konoha, "I wish I could say I had another easy or even fun mission for you, however we have been confirmed that one of the greatest threats to the leaf has returned, Orochimaru, and that he is trying to capture one of our Genin," The Hokage sighed, "I believe you know Sasuke Uchiha?"

Ranma nodded, "He's a good kid I guess, he's got one of them Sharingan eyes right? Is that why this Orochi guy wants him?"

Ryoga looked slightly confused, Ranma had explained the Eye things to him but he wasn't sure what was so great about them, after all, he knew he could take Kakashi in a fight, and he'd already bested a Hyuuga. He just nodded along trying to look like he was in the loop.

Ranma listened to the Hokage's explanation, asking questions occasionally to clarify things.

"So basically ya want us to guard the Kid while he's in the hospital recovering for the finals?" Ranma asked, not looking forward to Guard Duty, but fighting someone the entire village was afraid of was an interesting prospect.

The Hokage lightly shook his head, "No "us' I'm afraid, I only wish for YOU to guard Sasuke, Ranma, Ryoga will be assigned elsewhere. With the influx of foreign ninja into Konohagakure, we need all the security we can get," He said noticing that neither seemed to mind being split up.

Ryoga smiled glad to finally have the prospect of training away from his rival, "I'll finally get to learn some a new technique without Ranma," he thought to himself giddily.

Ranma sighed theatrically, "Ok deal, as long as I can visit Lee, they're in the same hospital right? And I'm gonna need a profile on the Orochiwatsit guy, what he looks like an' stuff."

The Hokage smile, nodding his head, "Of course, I'll escort you to the hospital and then we'll set Ryoga up with a guide so he doesn't get lost." By guide, he meant squad of Anbu who would stop and direct him if he began to wander, but whatever worked.

* * *

Several hours later Ranma was sitting in a hospital room next to Sasuke Uchiha, who was currently still out like a light and regretting ever agreeing to this.

Ryoga Hibiki laughed out loud, he had found the hot springs, mostly by accident, and was now leisurely watching one of Kakashi's pupils, Naruto, try his hardest to walk on the water. Ryoga was amazed that ninja could do that, he'd heard something about walking on water from Anna, the American girl he'd met once, something about a savior? He wasn't sure, but for a regular person to be able to do that was mind-blowing to him. (Irony is lost on Ryoga) He was however uncomfortable with the white-haired guy who was obviously doing perverted things, namely peeking at the girls. He figured he could say something to the guy but he could also see that he was training Naruto at the same time, and didn't want to interrupt that. After some time had passed he decided he would go meet his temporary squad, a team of Chunin. He sighed contently as he observed his surroundings, heading for the changing room he noticed the Anbu that was directing him watching from the doorway.

"So where's my temporary team at?" He said enthusiastically

Ranma looked around the hospital room, he felt a presence approaching the room, it was approaching very slowly at that, he slipped into the _Umi-Sen-Ken_ technique, and waited. He didn't have long to wait as the door slowly opened and a shock of white hair became visible, he almost thought it was Kakashi, but it wasn't spiked like the Jounin's was. As he watched silently a ninja wearing a hidden leaf headband entered the room, looking around quietly before moving to stand over Sasuke.

"This is too easy, they didn't even leave a guard," The white-haired ninja said to himself while pushing his glasses up onto his nose. He stood silently looking down at the Uchiha, before raising his hand, a light blue aura enveloping the appendage. Ranma jumped into action at this point, aiming a punch at the back of his opponents head, only to sigh in exasperation as his fist collided with a log. He turned around quickly dodging the chop aimed at his neck, his danger sense warning him not to let the aura touch him. He began to dodge the swipes, getting a feel for his opponents fighting style and started to figure the guy out.

"So, you aren't Orochimaru, so who the heck are ya?" He asked casually easily avoiding the attacks aimed at him, "Are you one of his henchmen? Bad guys always like to carry around some fodder to throw at their opponents first."

He smiled slyly when the rage became apparent on his older(?) opponents face, and he pressed onward, "I mean come on if this Orochi-whozit can take on the Hokage, then why not just come himself?"

The attacker chuckled, "You think you could best Orochimaru? I'm his right-hand man and I have no hopes of even matching Lord Orochimaru, what hope does a ninja who I don't even know have?" He sneered.

Ranma simply laughed, "If you're the second strongest, I'm suddenly a lot less worried about this Orochimaru guy," His face suddenly hardened as he seemingly teleported all over the room, multiple afterimages decorated the air. "I mean there's no way you could keep up with me!" He almost shouted, before stopping in front of his opponent who had been running towards the window. He shook his head, wagging his finger at his hapless foe. Before blurring behind him and knocking him out with a single, yet powerful, blow to the base of his neck, he then made his way to call someone to collect his prisoner.

Kabuto grimaced, he looked up at where his would-be captor was, facing the other direction, and began to slowly crawl towards the window. He knew he could escape if he caused enough of a commotion, he couldn't let this new adversary go unreported to Orochimaru. He smiled wistfully as he used his knowledge of medical ninjutsu to undo the damage that the shorter man had done. He looked back one last time, before shattering the window, and leaping out. He turned mid-fall and launched several explosive Kunai up at the window, only to look puzzled when they disappeared as they neared the wall. When he landed he noticed a certain, rather annoying, pigtailed ninja, standing several paces away.

Ranma shot the spy a cocky grin when he noticed the look of exasperation on his enemy's face, he let it fade as he held up the Kunai, casually tossing them back without their explosive tags. He chuckled to himself as he cracked his knuckles, "This'll be fun."

Orochimaru looked at his informant, Kabuto had been captured? That was not good news, anyone who could capture Kabuto was a possible threat, he knew Kabuto could take on a squad of Anbu, and even some of the special Jounin around the village, He had been keeping tabs on Kakashi and Guy, neither was in the hospital today. He did see the Hokage visit the place, but he didn't think that there were any other shinobi who could keep up with c Kabuto that he knew of. He sighed to himself, Kabuto had been told if he was captured to stay in custody until the invasion, it would only be a couple more weeks anyway.


	11. Chapter 10

_**A/n: As always, thanks for the reviews. I am sorry for another short chapter today, but I am going to be double uploading so... Anyway, I'm not gonna answer any reviews yet blah blah blah. I'm grateful that you guys answered my questions though. Also, I'm having trouble finding someone to add as a permanent member of Ranma and Ryoga's team. I want someone powerful, and who would get along well with the two. I thought about Anko but I feel like Ranma would be really uncomfortable with her, she's kinda "forward" and likes to tease and Ranma's not good with being teased especially by girls. As always leave a review, dm me if you have anything interesting to say, and tell me honestly how strong you think I should make Ranma and Ryoga in relation to Naruto's characters.**_

Chapter 10: The Invasion of Konoha! The Sand's Betrayal?

Ranma yawned loudly, his babysitting mission had been altogether uneventful, he honestly was glad it was over. After Sasuke, Ranma still thought of the Kuno's manservant, had recovered and gone to train for the finals with Kakashi, Ranma had gone off on his own, Ryoga was busy at the moment with his team of shinobi, and Rock Lee was still recovering. As Ranma looked around himself he spotted Guy hurrying towards the missions area and picked up his pace.

"Hey, Guy!" The pig-tailed jounin yelled just loud enough to be heard, "What's the rush?" Guy turned around at this, his eyes lit up when he spotted the younger man and slowed enough for the shorter ninja to catch up.

"Ahh, Saotome-kun, I was actually looking for you, as you know the finals are being held today, and I was hoping you would accompany me in cheering on young Hyuga." The silk-haired jounin said and smiled, the light glinting off his perfectly white teeth.

Ranma blinked, slightly unnerved by the subtly show of skill, he knew it was some sort of chakra trick, no one's teeth always happened to be perfectly in the light like, that before answering, "Of course, he's fighting Naruto right? I'd never miss two of my former pupils duking it out." He smiled at that, he could tell Neji was most likely to win, but he that with Naruto's drive to improve there was no way that he hadn't been training the entire month, probably learning some new move, lord knows he never stopped asking me if I knew any.

Several hours later, Ranma sat in the stands looking down at the ring, waiting patiently for the match to begin, he didn't like how much emphasis there was on "skipping the small fries," and "getting to the Uchiha fight," but he wasn't about to go out of his way to make enemies of the many feudal lords in attendance, not that he was worried they could threaten him. After several minutes of preparation, the referee quickly walked out into the ring, announcing the first match, Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga, Ranma watched as both boys took up their respective fighting style, Neji's _Gentle Fist_, and Naruto's newly learned _Saotome Aerial Grappling_, Ranma laughed, the blonde Ninja's style had been non-existent to start with, and he did have the propensity to take to the air. He was looking forward to this match more than any other, both boys had studied under him, and he had high hopes for them. In total the matches were interesting, Sasuke was going against the person who'd roughed up Lee, so Ranma wasn't sure how that would go for the young Uchiha, and Shino was against some guy who used puppets? He wasn't sure about that one, but Shino was strong and smart enough not to broadcast it. Then there was Sakura, who had been cheated out of her first match by the death of Dosu of the Sound. This tournament was shaping up to be interesting anyway.

As the match began, Ranma watched each of the Genins moves closely, he approved of how well Naruto had taken to the Saotome style, using his clones to enhance his aerial control well past what was normal for someone who didn't have the ki to direct themselves, plus they worked to further confuse his enemies, at this point Neji was having trouble keeping up with the number of clones the boy could produce. Ranma noticed the murmurs around him when it was made apparent that they were "Shadow Clones" and not normal ones, apparently the technique was rather advance Jounin level, and Naruto had mastered it as a genin. Ranma smiled, he knew the kid had talent, especially for advanced techniques, "Reminds me of well… Me!" he thought ruefully as he saw the dogpile that had formed on top of Neji, he smiled as a blue orb appeared, causing all of the clones to disappear, leaving a mostly unharmed Neji standing slightly winded from the strain of the technique. Ranma looked around, trying to find the real Naruto, seeing two, one had his arm back, the other was rapidly thrusting his palms forward into the lead one's hand.

"I see you've got a new move too!" The lead Naruto said, running forward, a blue ball forming in his hand as the other Naruto disappeared. Ranma looked on in amazement, after fighting for a good twelve minutes Naruto had finally broken out a new move, "I knew he had something new up his sleeve."

Ranma watched as the boy dashed at Neji, his arm back, summoning more clones as he neared, Neji looked forward uncertainty, he could track the real Naruto without his Byakugan easy enough, but the mass of clones was obscuring his view, and taking away his maneuverability. He activated his Byakugan again and leaped into the air only to be forced back down by several clones. Ranma could tell that this was the deciding moment for Neji, if he could get out of this unscathed then the match would be his, but if not then Naruto had him. He had noticed the looks of astonishment on the shinobi around him when Naruto had formed the blue ball, and he knew it was strong, he could feel the power from where he was. As the real Naruto closed in, Neji switched stances, taking up the Judo stance, he quickly threw blocked a blow from behind, before turning around as Naruto got within range, Naruto thrust his trailing arm forward quickly, Neji acting on his instincts grabbed his wrist, quickly tossing Naruto over his shoulder into the crowd of clones, only to blanch as the Naruto he'd thrown puffed. Ranma knew that was it for that match as he heard the cry _Rasengan!_ Neji was sent flying and spinning, away slamming into a tree hard. It looked like he might recover for a moment, but he collapsed as the strain from his injury overcame him.

The crowd whispered frantically to each other, all doubt as to what Jutsu the boy had been using was erased when he'd yelled the name. They were stunned, the fact that he could use such an advanced move, on top of how masterfully executed it had been had turned several eyes towards the boy and his possible future progress.

Silence filled the arena suddenly as the referee reappeared, "Sasuke Uchiha has still not arrived," He announced, causing grumbles to fill the air, "However the Hokage has agreed to postpone this match. The next match will be Kankuro from the Sand against Shino Aburame from the Hidden Lead."

Ranma looked at Shino, the boy was radiating cool confidence as always, but he noticed that Kankuro was speaking with his teammates frantically before the boy held up a hand, "I forfeit," he said causing Ranma's blood to boil slightly, he wasn't the only one either, cries of outrage were heard from all over the Arena. The referee simply nodded and announced the next match, Temari v.s. Shikamaru Nara.

As the match began, Ranma thought that the leaf genin was outmatched, his perception of the match quickly changed as he saw everything the girl did get countered, almost hitting every time, giving her the hope that she was winning. By the time she realized that she had been outmaneuvered it was too late, Ranma was shocked however when the boy gave up, especially when he had clearly won that fight. Then it clicked, throw in a dash of humility and boom you've got the perfect ninja candidate, he'd shown all of the relevant skills, stealth, strategy, combat ability, and then the small things. If anyone would be advance to chunin after this, it would be that boy.

As Genma reentered the center of the ring, he announced that Sasuke still hadn't arrived, and an instant before he announced the disqualification, the boy and Kakashi appeared.

Ranma, however, had lost interest in the match, he had sensed a Ki fluctuation from several of the sand ninjas, and one of the Anbu, sudden spikes of malicious intent, he got up and saddled closer, trying not to be obvious about it. When he looked back at the match, Sasuke had pushed the Sand guy back and he had made some sort of a ball around himself. Ranma was drawn back to the Sand Shinobi when they suddenly began to radiate fear. "Ok, that's not good." He looked back just in time to see Sasuke, with lightning on his hand, blurred forward, almost as fast as Lee could move at top speed, and punctured the ball. He looked over at the Sand Shinobi again as they went from fear to amazement and then horror. He wasn't sure why, but he sensed them hardening their resolve, then suddenly all hell broke loose, and Ranma blacked out.

Ryoga looked around astonished, for some reason the sand guy had bolted, and Sasuke had run off after him, then everyone around him had fallen asleep save the Shinobi that he'd met before like Guy and Kakashi, and somehow Sakura… He quickly spotted Ranma slumped over and laughed, "Weak idiot, can't even keep his eyes open!" he looked around once again noting that the Hokage was missing, but those were all of the details he was able to take in before suddenly every Sand ninja in the village began to systematically attack. Ryoga dispatched a group of three that had tried, semi-successfully, to ambush him. The kunai had struck him in the side of the head, and all up his side, but his natural durability had caused them to just harmlessly glance off of him. He turned towards the attackers, easily knocking the group out, they didn't even get a chance to fight back they were so astonished. He ran over to where Kakashi and Sakura was, they were discussing her job, apparently, it was to wake up all of the other Genin, and then pursue Sasuke. "Start with Ranma!" Ryoga said as he swatted a shuriken that had been flying towards Kakashi out of the air.

Sakura looked up questioningly and received a nod in response from her sensei.

"Where's the Hokage?" Ryoga asked, he knew the guy wasn't a pushover but he'd seen him being carted away by the Sands leader. Kakashi simply pointed towards the Hokage's tower and shook his head.

"We've got to protect the civilians," Kakashi said, turning away from the tower and leaping down into the street, blocking several Kunai aimed at him. Ryoga looked back towards the Hokage's tower uncertaintly, he had a bad feeling, but concurred, a martial artists job was to protect the weak.

Ranma awoke with a start, he looked up at the pink-haired girl standing over him and blinked, then it all came back to him, they were in a combat situation. He rolled and jumped to his feet, extending his sensory abilities to their limit. He quickly caught the ki signature of the Hokage, and someone very dark, and noticed that there was chaos everywhere. Sand Shinobi were throwing kunai indiscriminately at civilians, which caused Ranma's blood to boil. He blurred, pushing his speed to the absolute limit as he covered more than one-hundred yards faster than anyone could blink, he plucked the Kunai out of the air, sending them back at their origin. He flinched inwardly at what he'd done, before realizing that they were still alive, if barely. He'd missed any vital areas. He looked around, before a he felt a familiar presence. He turned around and noticed that the ninja, Kabuto he'd been told was striding toward him, dressed as an Anbu, sans mask, and brandishing many ninja tools, including an assortment of needles.

"I believe we have some unfinished business," the spy said haughtily, flicking out his hand, releasing all of the tools. Ranma simply blurred, not really changing positions, and dodged all of the tools.

"Business nothin" Ranma said with a scoff, "I kicked your sorry ass easy, and dropped ya in a cell, and when I do it again, I'm gonna find this Orochimaru guy and kick his ass too."

Kabuto's eyes narrowed as the comment, but he carried on nonetheless, "Ah, but Lord Orochimaru is busy dispatching the Hokage."

Ranma's eyes narrowed too before he disappeared faster than Kabuto had even thought possible and dispatched the lackey with a single well-placed blow to his spinal column, collapsing his nerves, "Thanks Tofu-ono" he thought as he jumped away from the temporarily crippled ninja. When he arrived at the Hokage's tower, after several minutes of running and detours to stop sand ninja, he saw that the building the battle had been taking place on was now covered in trees, and surrounded by a wall of violet fire, as he approached he was stopped by another ninja who explained that anything that crossed the barrier would be instantly engulfed and devoured by the flames. Ranma chuckled, "If I could take the heat Saffron was dishing out, then I can handle this kids stuff, especially with the Phoenix Pill helping out!" Ranma thought to himself, before pushing the other ninja to the side, and leaping handily through the barrier, he sighed as his clothes burned off, all except his boxers which he supposed hadn't been exposed to the flame and his undershirt. He didn't dwell on it though, he felt four ki signatures, three of them battling the one he recognized as Sarutobi. He blurred through the forest, not even noticing that the trees were trying, unsuccessfully to delay him. When he finally came to a stop, he saw the Third Hokage Impaled on a sword, coming from a pale guys mouth, they were talking to each other, and Ranma could feel the huge, benevolent Ki purveying the area. He stopped, noticing the look of contentment on Sarutobi's face, "Ah, but you'll be coming with me," he heard the Hokage say, and he watched as panic crossed the other shinobi, who he figured was Orochimaru, as his arms went limp. Ranma's face hardened as he stepped forward, announcing his presence, eliciting a look of shock from Orochimaru and a small smile from Sarutobi.

"Stay back Ranma, let me handle this if you interfere all will have been for naught," Sarutobi said, looking sadly at his former apprentice.

Orochimaru sneered, "You couldn't take me out if my legs were useless as well, old man, and this weakling wouldn't stand a chance against the might of Orochimaru."

Sarutobi shook his head, "Ah, my erstwhile apprentice, you have neglected your sensory abilities I see, this young man is more powerful than I was at my prime, he and his friend both. In fact, if you had done your research you would know that they together fought off three five squads of shinobi, one of which had Kakashi in it," The Hokage coughed up some blood, and grimaced, "My time grows short and so does yours, traitor."

Orochimaru struggled to escape from whatever he'd been put in, failing miserably, he smiled when he noticed the look of disappointment in his old master's eyes. "He laughed vehemently as he saw the lights go out, and stopped suddenly when he didn't regain use of his arms. He looked at the newcomer haughtily, even without his arms, he and his four curse seal users could easily handle one Jounin, he was a legendary Sanin after all.

Ranma's eyes took on a dangerous glint as he felt the Ki signature of one of his only friends in this world disappear. He stood stock still for a moment, watching as the barrier went down, suddenly he vanished, taking the Hokage's still warm body with him, he stopped in the midst of a group of shinobi, simply saying one word, "Go."

Ryoga saw the Hokage, gently laid on the ground, and leaped up into the forest, knocking trees over as he went. He felt the wind as Ranma passed him, pumping his legs even faster he saw Ranma facing off with five opponents, one was taller than the rest, and the four flanking him all had semi-demonic appearances.

Ranma looked at his opponents his killing intent was obvious and powerful, the four flanking Orochimaru looked uncertain looking towards their master for reassurance, taking solace in the fact that Ryoga was behind him, "Know you pay!"

_**A/n: P.s. I'll upload the next chapter in a couple of hours.**_


	12. Chapter 11

_**A/n: As promised**_

Chapter 11: Ranma and Ryoga's Assault! Farewell Sarutobi!

Ranma stood, facing off with the group of sound shinobi, his anger had gotten the better of him and he knew it, but he was going to kill these five it was the last thing he did. A small part of him was wary of taking that step, but he knew from the Hokage that Orochimaru was the worst type of person, a murderer, and had betrayed his allies. All of those things allowed Ranma to move forward without doubting the validity of his decision. He knew Ryoga wouldn't hesitate to do what was right either.

"You had your chance to escape," hissed Orochimaru, "now you'll see why this village fears me so much." He waved his lackeys forward, smiling as all four approached already in curse mode stage two, "I doubt the old man was being truthful about this annoyances abilities, but better safe than sorry.

Ranma scowled, his opponents were obviously used to working as a team, the largest one approaching from the front, flanked by the white-haired guy with a horn. The two who stayed farther back, one summoning some sort of bow, the other holding a flute. All of them had reddish skin, and three of them had horns. Their un-human appearance made it even easier for Ranma to let loose. He glanced at Ryoga, who had moved up to stand beside him, both of them taking a combat stance, and waited. As the largest of their opponents approached Ryoga stepped forward and swung at him, the boy blocked the hit, his eyes widened when he was flung backward by the force of the hit, his guard was shattered, and his ally was forced to leap to the side to avoid him. Ranma took advantage of the large ninja's flight by appearing above him, peppering his abdomen and head with punched forcing him into the roof. Ranma moved his head back as a large arrow flew past him, scratching his cheek as it went. He glanced towards the farthest of his enemies, he was spitting out some sort of web, spinning into the shape of an arrow, then the pigtailed martial artist ducked under a fist aimed at him from behind, spinning to sweep the legs out from under his opponent. The ninja with one large horn jumped over the sweep, landing beside his large friend, who had staggered back to his feet. At this point Ryoga barreled past Ranma, flinging kunai at the four. As he passed he yelled at Ranma, "You take out the pale guy, I'll handle the small fries."

Ranma nodded, leaping over the four, catching an arrow that had been fired at him and flinging it back at the multiple-armed ninja. When he landed he faced off with his new opponent, the snake-ninja smirked, before darting forward, faster than most would be able to keep up with, the sword he'd stabbed Sarutobi with coming out of his mouth. Ranma wasn't most, however, and he easily kept up with Orochimaru, catching the blade between his palms he kicked Orochimaru into the air, using his aerial skills to twist the Sanin around, sending him into a tree. He glanced over at Ryoga, who was now fighting five people, and shook his head as Ryoga launched a _Shi-Shi Hokodon_ at the spider guy. He jumped up into the air, dodging Orochimaru's head, his neck had extended out from his body. Orochimaru's head turned, tracking Ranma, sword swinging out at the airborne martial artist. Ranma dodged out of the way of the slash, kneeing Orochimaru in the jaw forcing his mouth shut. Ranma realized he was heading straight toward Orochimaru's body, and backflipped over the kick that had been aimed at him. His danger sense went off as he landed, and he ducked once more, narrowly avoiding Kabuto's Ki blade.

"Did you really think a pressure point would keep me down for long?" The spy asked angrily.

Ryoga had just finished launching his _Shi-shi Hokodon_ when he was hit from behind by a large metal club, he flinched slightly. "That's gonna bruise," he thought as he landed, turning to face his newest opponent, he'd been surprised when the white-haired guy had split in two and was even more surprised when he saw that there were three, very large, ogres, standing behind him. He sighed, cracking his knuckles, "Time to get serious." He stood back, noticing that he had been surrounded by his opponents, the three ogres and the tall guy were closing in, and the spider guy was aiming his bow again. "This situation seems hopeless, I'd say it's almost as depressing as seeing the Hokage dead." Suddenly, a huge orb of pure red ki energy emanated from Ryoga, enveloping his opponents, vaporizing the three ogres, and scattering the rest of them. Ryoga stood in the center of the ring, the pillar of Ki reaching into the sky, a single teardrop leaking down his face. When the blast finally disappeared, there was a huge circle around him, devoid of anything, the roof he'd been standing on was gone as well, and he fell what was left of his footing collapsed.

Ranma paused, he could feel the strength of the attack Ryoga had just done, and he was impressed. He knew what it was too. "Yeah, me too buddy," he thought as he dodged a swipe from Kabuto only to take a kick from Orochimaru. He sighed since Kabuto had reappeared he'd been more on the defensive, it was obvious these two worked together a lot. Even if it was just Kabuto following Orochimaru's lead Ranma had been hard pressed to get in any meaningful strikes. He jumped over Kabuto, springboarding off the ninja as he took to the air. He landed in front of Orochimaru and launched several hundred punches at the Sanin's undefended chest. Orochimaru was flung backward by the blows, impacting a tree, he struggled back to his feet before growling. His mouth had a trickle of blood coming from the corner, which he licked away.

"I tire of playing with you boy." The snake-ninja said, jumping into the air as a giant snake appeared underneath him. Ranma gaped, the snake was longer than the building they were on was tall, and it was as thick as a tree trunk. He jumped back, dodging as Orochimaru, Kabuto and the snake all attacked in unison, the snake lunged at him, trying to bite him, while Kabuto kept taking shots with his Chakra blade. Orochimaru suddenly opened his mouth wide, flames enveloping Ranma. Ranma's fist darted out, punching the snake-man in the face, "I'm fire-proof, ya idiot!" He exclaimed as he continued to jump backward, his undershirt now completely burnt off, he knew he was at a disadvantage, the snake was pure muscle, definitely stronger than Ranma, he knew it would be able to constrict him if he gave it a chance. His mind made up, he began to turn, leading the three around, slowly closing the circle. Spiraling inward, Ranma suddenly stopped, the snake darted forward, biting down on his leg, Ranma ignored the pain, bringing his fist upward in an uppercut. Orochimaru laughed, the attack had done nothing, but he was suddenly launched into the air along with Kabuto and the snake, which had let go of Ranma's thigh. Ranma watched from the eye of the tornado he had formed as rubble and various discarded ninja tools were sucked into the tornado, making it all the more dangerous. He looked down at himself, he was bloody, bruised, and he had a trail of blood coming from the puncture wounds in his leg, but he was still on his feet. He could see Orochimaru thrashing about in the middle of the tornado, and was surprised to see that the snake had disappeared. Kabuto had already been flung out of the technique and was standing on the outside. Suddenly a Kunai attached to a cord flew into the tornado, Kabuto having expertly thrown it, it wrapped around the Snake-ninja, and he was pulled out by the battered Kabuto. As the white-haired ninja jumped away from the tornado, Ranma made to follow, only to collapse, he felt it finally, poison, of course, the snake had been venomous. He struggled to his feet, the venom was being held at bay by his Ki healing. But he knew if he tried to follow the fleeing Sanin he wouldn't make it. He had to get help. As his vision grew dim he saw feet approaching him.

Ryoga awoke covered in rubble. He could hear people yelling about clearing it away. He sighed, standing up easily clearing away the demolished building easily. He didn't look any worse for wear, he had a nasty bruise on his back but it wasn't anything painful, he'd passed out due to using all of his Ki in the last attack. He was escorted, despite his protests to the Hospital. He was put into a room with Ranma, who he was surprised to see in the hospital. Ranma smiled at him, he was dressed in his usual silk clothes, the only change was the bandage wrapped around his thigh.

"What happened with Orochimaru?" Ryoga asked simply, his rival's face showed his anger and disappointment.

Ranma shook his head, "That snake bastard ran away, I would've chased him down but I got bitten by a damn snake, poisoned me." The pigtailed martial artist sat up wincing as his various bruises were pressed by the bed. He made to stand up, catching a glare from the nurse who he waved off, and stood. "Come on Ryo, let's find Guy."

After several minutes of searching, they found Guy in Lee's room. The young ninja was resting, and Guy looked deflated. He instantly acted cheerier when he noticed Ranma and Ryoga enter. Guy's unbreakable facade of vigor had been badly shaken by the loss of the Hokage. He informed them that there had been minimum casualties, all of Konoha had fought back against the invaders. He also told them when the funeral would be, before politely asking to be left to his mourning. Ranma obliged, dragging Ryoga off, as the pair walked down the hall-way Ryoga told Ranma what he'd learned about the five people he'd been fighting. Only one had survived Ryoga's full powered Shi-Shi Hokodon, the girl Tayuya who had been the furthest away, she was currently in custody. Ranma shook his head, "Hopefully we'll be able to track Orochimaru down." He stopped suddenly when he saw Naruto come flying out of a hospital room, a bouquet of flowers flung after him. Ranma laughed when he heard Sakura's voice yelling after him. He peeked into the room, Sakura was in the hospital bed, Sasuke standing beside her. She was obviously upset about whatever Naruto had said, but she was distracted from it by Ranma's appearance. "Sensei!" the pink haired girl said, "You're injured!" Ranma waved away her concern, asking what had happened to her.

Naruto was back in the room, answering the older boy's question enthusiastically, "We fought a giant sand demon, who was actually Gaara. It was tough but me and Sasuke kicked its butt, especially hard because it threatened Sakura, plus I summoned a giant toad!" Ranma shook his head, he could probably get the full story later from Kakashi, "Sounds tough, all I had ta do was fight off Orochimaru." At the mention of Orochimaru, the room fell silent, as they all thought about what he'd done to the Hokage.

Did you really take him on yourself?" Sasuke asked, his voice was full of doubt and awe as if he didn't know whether to believe him or not.

"Yep and Ryoga over here beat all five of his lackeys," Ranma said, the look of awe beat out his doubt when Kakashi poked his head in the door, nodding solemnly.

"Ranma did in fact run Orochimaru and one of his spies off single-handedly," The jounin said, his exhaustion apparent, "That is why the Hokage's advisors wish to speak to you and Ryoga as soon as possible."

As Ranma walked with, and lead, Ryoga to the Hokage's building. Once inside he was face to face with the group that he'd met before, all of them with solemn looks in their eyes.

"We have successfully extracted the location of Orochimaru's base from the mind of the sound Ninja Tayuya," Said Danzo, "And you two have been elected as the leaders of the assault squad, you will be leaving as soon as Hiruzen has been laid to rest." "You may take one other Jounin with you" interjected one of the advisors.

"Ranma, we have recognized you as one of the strongest of our village, we are trusting you to bring one of the greatest threats to this village down." Danzo finally said, "We are currently leaderless, and this attack has shamed the village. Once we have found a replacement Hokage, our workload will increase exponentially as we try to seem as if we didn't take a loss here." The bandaged man sighed, "If you succeed in taking down Orochimaru, we will be able to rest easier."

Ranma nodded, he understood the situation and was glad that he was the one entrusted with the mission. "I'll handle it," he said a hint of steel creeping into his voice.

Danzo smiled, "Of course, we will also be receiving help from the Sand Village, who have admitted to being manipulated and offered to help rebuild, Orochimaru killed their Kage, and impersonated him." Ranma thought about arguing, but another team would be helpful, plus he understood how much honor was lost by what had happened. He simply nodded.

As the day came to an end, Ranma went to the clothing store, intent on buying something funeral appropriate. He was glad that the council had urged business to open as normal, he left holding a black cheongsam. He sighed, he was mentally worn out from previous days events, and he was trying to find someone willing to accompany him and Ryoga to Orochimaru's hideout. Guy and Kakashi both had other more pressing matters and Kurenai had been injured by several Jounin from the Sand. He turned around at the sound of someone calling his name. He turned and yelped as he turned into her when a huge splash of water fell from the sky, completely soaking the now short red-head. The ninja that had been calling for him stopped, confusion covering his face. "Your Ranma right?" The diminutive red-head nodded.

"I'm Asuma Sarutobi, I want to come with you after Orochimaru," the shinobi said

"Of course, I've been having trouble finding anyone who would come anyway." the red-head said. They walked side by side for a moment, talking about the upcoming funeral, and what about Sarutobi. Asuma being Hiruzen's son told Ranma stories from his youth, Sarutobi had always been friendly and honorable. After they had parted ways Ranma made his way back to his apartment for a shower.

The next day Ranma gathered Ryoga earlier than usual and they sat solemnly, it was a tradition for them to meditate after the loss of a loved one. He thought back to how they had sat together in middle school after Ryoga's first dog had passed. He sighed, his emotions coming to the forefront, he missed those days, him and Ryoga fought sure, but they were also companions in arms, he felt even more depressed as his thoughts drifted to the Hokage, one of the first people to accept them when they had arrived. He forced down the tears, men don't cry, and centered himself, clearing his mind as is standard meditation practice. They sat, facing each other like that in silence, fasting and contemplating life until right before the funeral. As they both dressed, Ryoga wearing a formal black shirt and pants, and Ranma dressed in his new shirt and his cleanest black pants, Ranma glanced out the window and realized it was going to rain that day. He sighed accepting his fate and quickly made the change into a girl. She was going to see the Hokage off the same way they'd met, a short red-head. As they approached the grave site, the ninja didn't have large services they just committed the body to the ground, Ranma saw that most of Konoha were in attendance, the crowd stretched for miles. As they approached the front, she noticed Naruto standing next to Iruka, both had tears streaking down their face. Despite the sudden downpour no one made to move away, they took solace in the fact that even the gods wept for the passing of one of, if not the best men to have ever called Konohagakure home. Somewhere a baby started to cry, and the entire Inuzuka clan howled. He saw Lee, on crutches, standing beside Guy whose face was contorted as he fought back his tears. He noticed Neji and Hinata standing with their clan, Hinata's eyes were puffy, and Neji was obviously not unaffected either. Taking all of this in, Ranma's eyes settled on Sasuke, whose face was set in a look of grim resolve. Their eyes met briefly, Ranma nodded towards the last of the Uchiha before they broke eye contact. After the body had been lowered into the ground, Asuma stepped forward, as the oldest descendent of Hiruzen he was tasked with saying the parting words.

"Today, I lose a father, but that is not all that was lost," He paused, his eyes red-rimmed he no longer had any tears left, "This village lost a leader, each and every one of you has lost a relative as well. My father truly considered Konoha a single family. He died standing up to the greatest threat this village has seen since we lost the fourth." He stopped once again, scanning the crowd, "And he didn't fight because he was the Hokage, he fought for his family, all of us, He was the Hokage, not because he was the best, he was Hokage because he was the most loyal, dedicated ninja in the village." Asuma's voice grew quiet, "I loved my father, not only because despite his duties he always had time for me, but also because despite making time for me he also made time for you all. Every one of you could say that he greeted you by name." I would see him walking the streets, conversating with you, loving you as one of his own, because we were, and are. Konoha isn't just a village, it's the largest Clan there is, I know that if this village hadn't been a family, we would have lost more to this attack, and my father was the embodiment of this fact, he fought for all of us, with the strength we offered." He bowed his head, "And I invite all of you to join me as we say our final farewell to Hiruzen Sarutobi, a father, and a leader."

Ranma looked away from Asuma, her eyes filling with tears, she let them flow this time, men might not cry, but they did grieve.

**_A/n: If you don't like how strong Ranma is compared to Orochimaru, remember he can't use his arms. I'm not gonna say if he'd have had much more trouble had he been going against full powered Orochimaru thought, that might happen later._**


	13. Chapter 12

_**A/n: Short Chapter Again! Next weeks will definitely be longer. Shoutout to those of you who gave me some critiques, and I tried to take the advice given to heart!**_

Chapter 12: Operation Snake in the Grass Begin!

Ranma stood beside the village gate as the light began to stream into Konoha from the rising sun. He glanced at Ryoga, who had his backpack strung casually over one shoulder, and noticed the impatience in the eyes of his rival. "He'll be here any minute now," Ranma said, "We got here early after all." Ryoga merely nodded, they were waiting for Asuma Sarutobi to arrive, the son of the late Hokage was going to accompany them on their mission to hunt down Orochimaru, whose location had been disclosed by the capture Sound Ninja, Tayuya. They were going to be assaulting the hideout in Kusagakure aka. The Village Hidden in the Grass, as it was the hideout Orochimaru had been actively using prior to his assault on Konoha. Kusa was an allied village of the Leaf and was unaware that there was any such hideout within their borders. Ranma had been informed that it was a two-day trek to arrive there, dependent on their travel speed of course. The pig-tailed boy leaned against the large gate, observing his surroundings for a moment before he spotted Asuma coming towards him, followed closely by Kurenai. He wasn't sure why she was coming but the Kunoichi was obviously worried about something.

"There you are," Ranma said as the duo approached, "What's going on Kurenai?"

Kurenai shook her head and smiled as she approached, "Just worried about Asuma, Orochimaru isn't a threat to take lightly after all."

Ranma nodded his agreement, he'd faced Orochimaru and he was second only to Saffron, but Orochimaru was definitely more skilled. "Of course we'll keep him safe," Ranma said, "That's a Saotome promise."

Ryoga glanced at the sky, "It's getting late guys, we've got to set out soon," the lost boy reached into his pack and pulled out the map that had been provided, "So it's this way?" he said before beginning to walk back into Konoha. Ranma leaped over Ryoga, snatching the map in the process, "No ya idiot, it's this way."

Asuma glanced back at Kurenai, before hugging her quickly, jumping after Ranma and Ryoga who had made their way out of the village, "I'll see you when I get back."

Ranma was jumping from tree to tree, keeping an eye on Ryoga while casually conversating with Asuma, "So, what else can you tell me about Orochimaru?"

"I don't know much more than you do, I met him when I was a kid seeing as he was my dad's student, but I only know what everyone else knows," The Jonin replied as they landed in a clearing, "Ranma, he is strong, that's all I can tell you, anyway, lets set up camp here."

Ranma looked around the clearing, it was devoid of trees, the grass was easily chest-high, and Ranma was forced to agree with Asuma, the sun had begun to dip below the horizon and the shadows had lengthened considerably. "Yeah, I guess ya got a point," The martial artist replied, "Ryoga! Over here!"

Ranma watched as the pig-boy glanced over his shoulder at Ranma, nodded and proceeded to turn in the opposite direction. After several minutes of setup, and a quick "Ryoga Recovery Mission" as Asuma had begun to call them, the team sat down at their campsite. Ranma was tired, he didn't usually get tired from physical activities, but he had gone through a serious battle not long ago, and had been jumping from one tree to another for almost eight hours. He sighed as he cozied up to the fire, enjoying the heat of it. He was tempted to stick his feet into the flames the grass was damp and had soaked through his shoes and he felt like warming up.

"So, I know you guys aren't from Konoha but do you could tell me something about where you came from maybe one of your adventures, it's rare for people as powerful as you are to be so unknown," Asuma said suddenly catching Ranma's attention.

"I guess, what do you want to know?" Ranma said, he had talked with the Hokage about it and they had decided to keep their "dimensional travel" as secret if anyone asked they had come from over the sea, "I mean, I'm sure your dad told you something about us."

Asuma nodded, "Did you really fight a dragon?" He said enthusiastically, Ranma blanched Herb hadn't been a good time for him.

"Yeah, I did, Ryoga fought one of his friends," Ranma sighed as he recounted the events of the Herb fiasco, "I guess he was more of a half-dragon, but he still smashed that mountain easy enough, and the guy Ryoga fought was, physically, even stronger, I remember hearing something about he held two parts of a fissure apart?" He said looking towards Ryoga for clarification.

The lost boy smiled, "Yeah, after he broke the ground he threw me into the crack, lucky for me he wasn't all that bright 'cause I got him to switch with me." Ryoga shook his head, the memory of almost being crushed between the two walls of stone wasn't pleasant, he could have used the breaking point to get out but it would've hurt like hell.

Asuma shook his head in disbelief, Dragons were legendary beasts said to be immensely powerful, and the thought that these two had faced one while still teens was baffling to him.

The sun had finally set over their camp, the shadows from the trees making the darkness even more absolute, the moon began to crest over the mountains in the distance and Ranma finally lay down to sleep, Asuma had the first watch.

When Ranma was wakened up it was by Ryoga, the moon was low in the sky again. Ranma was instantly alert, he figured there wasn't anything wrong but years of being ambushed all hours of the day and night by his father had trained him to be awake at the first sign of danger, mostly. There had been a few incidents where he hadn't been quite as alert as he should, but those weren't physical threats so he gave himself a pass, especially since he could, so he'd been told, fight in his sleep. Ranma hopped up into a tree as he prepared for his watch, which was mostly uneventful, he saw two ninja's wearing red and black cloaks heading towards Konoha, but they weren't acting overly suspicious so he ignored them, he did, however, file away the name Akatsuki for a later date. As the sun began to rise Ranma noticed that Asuma was a heavy sleeper, Ryoga had to pour water on him to wake him up. It was late in the day when they finally made contact with the Hidden Grass Village, they were intercepted by a team of Jonin from Kusa. The Kage of Kusa was a man, roughly Ryoga's height, who exuded control. He didn't seem to be overly powerful, not compared to Hiruzen, but he was obviously suited to the Kage title. As Ranma was briefed about what he could expect in the surrounding forests, from giant mushrooms to deep ravines, he casually asked about Orochimaru's Hideout.

The Kage knew it was in the village or near it, but no one had seen him entering or exiting the village.

After the meeting with the Kage Ranma and Ryoga headed off into the forest, leaving Asuma to check the village. Ranma stood under a giant mushroom and smiled. "I wonder how old we'd turn if we ate this one?" He said aloud prompting Ryoga to chuckle to himself, "We'd probably end up looking like Happosai or the old ghoul."

Ranma suddenly went on full alert, he could tell Ryoga also heard the quickly approaching footsteps. They relaxed as a Jonin from Kusa landed in front of them, it was apparent that he had run the entire way to find them. "The Jonin from the leaf has found the snakes den!"

Asuma smiled, the "abandoned" building that everyone seemed to unconsciously avoid, he'd noticed after observing the citizens for several hours, actually had several sublevels. The Jutsu he'd used gave him a clear idea of the size, and he was baffled that no one had noticed this before. It was an incredibly large, complex at least several hundred yards below the surface, with many branching arms going out in all directions, Asuma was prepared to enter the building, but decided to wait for Ryoga and Ranma to arrive, he was smart enough to know that he wasn't up to the task himself. Several minutes later the two Martial Artist appeared before him, literally, Asuma gaped at the display of speed, noting that Ranma didn't seem tired by it at all.

"It's here," Asuma said, "And it's huge."

Ryoga looked around himself before walking to the door, and opening it, "Let's go then!" He cautiously stepped forward into the building waiting for any traps to spring, when nothing did he beckoned them forward.

Asuma looked baffled, "Why did you do that, what if it had exploded?"

Ranma shook his head, "If it ain't a pure Ki explosion big enough to take out this village, it ain't even gonna phase him."

Asuma led the team forward into the building, heading towards the location of the secret passageway that led deeper. He quickly formed a few handsigns, the passage slid open soundlessly.

"After you," Asuma said to Ryoga motioning forward before silently grasping his knives, steeling himself for possible combat.


	14. Chapter 13

_**A/n: Ok, so I'm cutting it down to one chapter per week for a while, I've got school and I'm getting ready to take the ACT, now to reply to a review!**_

_**Aliesterus: Yeah, he made this claim, and he also was repeatedly tagged with things that mess with your mind, Bandaid, fishing pole, and string. He showed no immunity to these so I guess he's not immune after all!**_

_**All of you who wonder why Ryoga is immune to the effects of Genjutu, I feel like it's a perk of having a terrible sense of direction... I mean my explanation for his terrible sense of direction is that the Ki flow to his brain is stunted, making him basically unaware of his surroundings, and then his chakra flow to his head is also non existent, therefore he is basically immune to Genjutsu, at least any that aren't super powerful *coughItachicough* so yeah, plus I just wanted to give Ryoga something that would make him a little harder to be swamped in the Naruto-verse, I mean Ranma is at least smart enough to figure out that he's in an illusion.**_

Chapter 13: Snake's Den! He's Got a Bone to Pick!

Ranma watched from the rear of the procession made up of himself, Ryoga, and Asuma. Ryoga was advancing through the maze that was Orochimaru's hideout, the veritable bomb squad if bomb squads purposefully set off the bombs. So far they hadn't happened upon many traps, most of them were various explosive tags which hadn't even scratched Ryoga. They were currently making they're way down a long hallway, moving ever deeper into the bowels of the complex.

"So, do you think he's even here? We haven't really run into much resistance have we?" Ranma said breaking the tense silence that had permeated the atmosphere. He looked behind himself, suddenly feeling like he was being observed.

Ryoga stopped suddenly, they had reached a large door, "Well, that can always change, we got to another large door." Ranma smiled, the last door had lead into a room full of weapons and other Ninja tools. Ranma had added a set of _Shuko_ to his arsenal, they would allow him to hand on the side of trees without using Chakra, which he still had no clue how to harness.

Ryoga pushed the door open, giving all three of the Shinobi the ability to see into the room, inside was a large snake statue and a deep indentation reminiscent of the arena that they had tested Ranma and Ryoga's skills in. Asuma stopped suddenly while putting a hand on Ryoga's shoulder. "We should spread out, check the area for anything that could be useful," Ryoga nodded before leaping quickly into the middle of the ring while Ranma moved to the right and Asuma to the left.

Ranma quickly jumped across the pit that Ryoga was standing in looking around and landed on the head of the snake statue. As he turned back around he saw Ryoga bend down and grab a tag off of the ground, as soon as he had straightened up torches all around the room lit simultaneously and the ground of the arena began to writhe and crawl. Ryoga lept into the air putting room between himself and the suddenly changing arena when tendrils shot out of the ground wrapping around his leg and whipping him around, slamming him violently into the wall. Ranma noticed the annoyed look on his rivals face before he dodged nimbly out of the way of several more snake-like tendrils. He blurred around the room, stopping next to Asuma who was being similarly assaulted. As he landed next to the older shinobi, slamming his fist into multiple different tendrils that were beginning to enclose the Jonin. He noticed the Chakra blades that were emanating from Asuma's Bird Knives, which were making short work of the tendrils that were attacking him. Ranma quickly ducked under Ryoga, who the tendrils had decided would make a good club, and took to the air. At this point, the number of tendrils had increased dramatically and Ranma began to notice that the tendrils didn't seem fazed by his attacks, punches and kicks seemed to be ineffective. Ryoga suddenly flew through the air above him yelling, "Who do you think you're swinging around!? _**Bakusai Tenketsu!**_" he then jammed his finger into the tendril which exploded. Ranma suddenly found himself slammed violently into the wall by hundreds of stone tendrils. "Crap, they're not stopping," Ranma yelled out to Iruka who was barely fighting off the mass of tendrils. "We gotta find a way to destroy them!" Iruka said out loud, slicing several more into pieces, "well, if you dismantle them they stop."

Ranma grimaced, he'd already unsealed one of the forbidden techniques of the Saotome School, but the situation, and the world, he was in now called for more force. Ranma forcefully wrenched his arms free of the wall, sweeping them forward violently as blades of compressed air shredded the tendrils in front of him, "That's the _**Yama-Sen-Ken**_!" He declared as the vacuum blades continued onward and swept through the far wall and continued forward destroying the contents of the next room as well. After several moments of the tendrils failing to reform the team moved through the room that Ranma had demolished before coming to the largest, most ornate door Ranma had ever seen, the gold embroidery around the edges depicted a large battle that had taken place between two figures, one bearing the Sharingan eye, the other had a massive tree behind his back, it then moved on to show a large village sprouting from the middle of a leaf and a large wave flowing from it, before finally showing a man, who Ranma recognized as The Third Hokage, and then it showed a large demonic fox spreading fire in front of a massive mountain engraved with faces. He heard Asuma gasp before muttering, "This is the history of the village."

Ranma nodded his head before pushing the door wide open, the door opened into a large area, well lit, a large stone throne sitting at the end, Ranma stiffened, slipping into his battle stance when he noticed a figure on the throne.

"Welcome to my master's throne room!" the figure said before standing tall, his white hair and pale skin directly accented by the red dots on his forehead, "I hope you have intruded here prepared to face death." The ninja suddenly rushed forward, white spikes shooting out of his arms and chest before he engaged Asuma. The Jonin quickly dodged backward, flipping out of range, and launching several shurikens at the young man.

"I AM KIMIMARO! AND I WILL BE YOUR END!" Kimimaro yelled before his head suddenly snapped the the side, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he collapsed.

"Well that was anti-climactic," Ryoga said before bursting out into laughter before picking up the boy and slinging him over his shoulder. Ranma distended his fist a light smoke rising off of it, "Yeah, he sure talked big didn't he?"

"Let's get out of here." Asuma said as he took the lead going towards the room they had exited, "Maybe we can learn something from this guy."

* * *

Ranma emerged in the Hidden Grass Village, his face happily accepting the kisses that the sun planted on his face, before cursing as he changed into a woman, the weather was apparently a light sprinkle accompanied by sunshine. She sighed to herself before grabbing Ryoga's shoulder and keeping him from exiting the building and becoming a pig. "You might wanna hand him over before you come out here," the aqua-transexual said her voice obviously peeved. She grabbed the unconscious ninja and took hold of Ryoga's bandana before pulling him out into the rain, suddenly holding P-chan. Asuma laughed as he noticed the disgruntled expression on his female companion's face, "Let's get this guy to the Kage," The neo-girl said quickly before leaping towards the office.

After handing off their captive to the medical ninja, Ranma and Asuma bowed before the Hokage, who looked slightly puzzled, "And why have you brought another leaf shinobi into my village?" the man said without preamble, his face showing his annoyance.

"Ranma here is the man that you met before, he ahh, has an interesting bloodline," Asuma said trying not to laugh as his teammate turned red, "But more importantly, we have succeeded in our mission, we have captured a rogue ninja, and will be returning to Konoha promptly. The Kage nodded his assent, "Our medical-nin will take care of him first, and make sure he will stay docile for the transporting."

Ranma sighed, he was glad to be back in his male form, but he also had gotten used to his female form at this point. It bothered him that while he was a girl he didn't care if he changed back or not. It also bothered him that he had been put on guard duty over the kid they'd captured. "This wimp isn't even gonna be a problem is he?" He thought to himself as he noticed the murderous intent begin to emanate from his captive. He had been informed by the medical-nin that he was terminally ill, and he also seemed to have a unique bone structure. Ranma tensed and easily ducked under the large spike that had suddenly emanated from Kimimaro's chest. He gipped the spear, and gasped, it was made of bone. "Oh, that's just disgustin'" He yelled before flinging his attacker through the wall. The boy jumped to his feet, his body quickly becoming covered in black runes.

"Now I will show you the true terror of the power that Lord Orochimaru has bestowed upon me!" He said as a tail began to sprout from his back, "I hope you are prepared fo-" he collapsed once again, the tail slowly disappearing. "Yeah, we've already been through that, no more gross-oni-transformations," Ryoga said from behind the comatose ninja, his umbrella now sitting happily on his shoulder, "Let's head out!"

Asuma smiled as he watched the lost boy and neo-girl come running towards him, Ryoga had Kimimaro slung over his shoulder.

**_A/n: Sorry for another short chapter, I will beging to put out larger chapters after this, They'll also be coming out on Saturdays starting next week! Only on saturdays, as always Read and Review, lots of Reviews!_**


	15. Chapter 14

_**A/n: Ok, So i've decided to update whenever I well feel like it because screw schedules and stuff, anyway Love You, let me know how you feel about this chapter, I dont honestly care rn cause I'm sick so ya know whatever, hope you feel like being a cool dude and doing stuff I don't know**_

Chapter 14: New Revelations! Meet the 5th Hokage!

Ranma sighed inwardly, the trip back to Konoha had taken longer than expected, Kimimaro had finally resigned to his prisoner status and had stopped trying to escape, his condition had begun to worsen as the illness infecting his body took its toll on his stamina and chakra reserves. They had finally reached Konoha early on the third day of their journey, travel weary and ready to relax, it had taken them all of a week and a day to travel to Kusa and back, and Ranma was looking forward to visiting the nice buffet he'd encountered before he left.

After handing Kimimaro over to the medical ninja in the village Ranma and Ryoga had decided to spar and then relax at the hot springs that Ryoga had gone to. As the pair approached the training ground they had adopted they noticed Asuma waiting for them, his face serious as he speaks with Kurenai. Ranma had lost interest in the lovers, if it was important they'd tell him, and found his attention being drawn to the six young ninja standing around awkwardly. Hinata noticed Ranma and Ryoga's approach before anyone else, a small smile showed before she turned back to her teammates, and began to whisper fervently.

Ranma smirked when he felt a sudden spike of malicious intent from Kurenai's students all leaped into action, Ryoga was caught off guard as two spinning genin, both of whom happened to be Kiba, and was pushed backward through a nearby tree. The lost boy looking no worse for wear grabbed hold of Kiba and Akamaru forcefully ending their rotation before laughing out loud and lightly, for Ryoga, smashing them into each other. He looked down baffled as he lost his grip on Akamaru, the dog having returned to his true form. The dog bit down on Ryoga's ankle only to find the pig boys skin was to tough to bite through but rather tasty.

Ranma was having a slightly tougher time of it, Shino's bugs were causing Ranma no end of trouble as he used the training he underwent with his father, fighting a swarm of bees, to handle Shino's unique abilities. He was hard pressed to dispatch the boy however due to Hinata's guerilla tactics. The girl kept running in close and trying to get hits in, only to be knocked back by Ranma. Ranma ducked under a Kunai which had been thrown by Shino while simultaneously stepping around a punch thrown by Hinata. As the Pig-tailed Jounin weaved through the attacks that were being thrown at him he suddenly felt the need to jump high into the air, as he did so he noticed Hinata become encased in a ball of light, he realized that she was attacking in a full three-sixty circle around herself.

He stopped momentarily to admire the skill, she'd seen Neji doing a similar move, he was much more aggressive with it though. He smiled before jumping into the thick of things, his feet and arms blurred as he blocked her flurry of blows, the fight had drawn the attention of Asuma and Kurenai, both of whom watched in awe as the perfect circle of Chakra had a literal wedge driven into it, they saw Hinata, her arms a blur, sweat beading down her face as she tried her hardest to land even a single blow on her temporary Sensei. Ranma for his part was enjoying the thrill of this particular challenge, he knew he could have ended her assault several times, but he knew this was good practice for the Hyuga. He jumped back, springboarding off of Shino, who had also been watching the exchange, a surprised look on his face as he found himself on his back. Ranma put plenty of flair into his flip, landing extravagantly on his feet directly next to the Shikamaru kid, the only one who had become a chunin after the exams, and laughed as he noticed the looks of absolute shock on the kid's face. He bowed to his "audience" before turning back to Ryoga, "Well, that was a good warm-up for me, how about that spar?"

Asuma quickly stepped forward, "Actually, we need to talk to you," he said motioning towards Kurenai, who nodded.

Ino Yamanaka had always been certain that she was in love with Sasuke Uchiha, but for the first time ever she was wondering if it was possible to love two people at the same time. The strange man who had come out of nowhere, and promptly been attacked by Hinata and co. was devilishly handsome, and extremely skilled, sadly he was much older than her. She turned to Hinata who was sitting under a tree, having been told to rest by her Sensei, "Spill, who even is he?" The young blonde said, motioning towards the pig-tailed boy and her Sensei.

"That's Ranma-sensei," They recently reinstated Hyuga heir said, never taking her eyes off of the martial artist, "and the other guy is Ryoga-sensei." Hinata could tell that Ino wanted to ask some more questions, but she was interrupted by a loud exclamation of anger and disbelief.

"You mean those guys were actually dangerous!?" Ranma yelled incredulously upon hearing about what had happened between Kakashi, Guy, and Kurenai, and the cloaked figures that Ranma had ignored as they left Konoha a week prior, "This Itachi guy is really that dangerous?"

Kurenai simply nodded, "He is a master of Genjutsu, even better than I am, and he was able to render Kakashi completely unable to continue," In fact, Kakashi and Sasuke are still recovering in the hospital."

Ranma noticed Ryoga's anger mounting and couldn't help but share the sentiment, "This bastard harmed a kid? His own family?" Ranma was beginning to think that his "kill only if necessary" rule was about to have a clause added, "and you mean to tell me that Kakashi is still out of commission?" the young Jonin said surprise evident on his face.

Kurenai once again simply nodded her head, "His only hope of recovery is the Sannin Tsunade, she is the best Medical Ninja alive, luckily she is currently coming to the village to become the next Hokage, Jiraiya-sensei was sent out to find her, apparently they encountered Orochimaru."

Ranma's had to force himself to calm down at that, "That bastard, no wonder we couldn't find him in Kusa, do they know why he was there?" Ranma didn't want to think about why the snake-bastard was so far from his last known location, he knew that avenging Sarutobi would be something that would be put on the back burner in light of the recent events with the "Akatsuki" as this Jiraiya guy had called them, apparently they were after Naruto for some reason.

Asuma finally joined the conversation, feeling like he had been sidelined for too long, "Apparently he was trying to stop her from coming to Konoha," he said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, "He still plans on attacking the village as far as we can tell, and having a strong leader would put a damper on those plans."

"As interesting as all of this is, why did you need to tell us it now?" Ryoga asked stepping forward for the first time, fed up with being ignored, "I mean, I guess you just wanted to let us know that Orochimaru was somewhere completely different?" The lost boy scratched the back of his head, "Or was it letting us know that we'd have to meet this new Hokage?"

Asuma looked at Kurenai and shrugged, "Honestly it was just because you showed up."

"Well if that's all, Ryo and I have a spar to get to." the pig-tailed martial artist said before planting a spin-kick into Ryoga's side launching him up and over a nearby tree, "And I have a lot of newfound anger to work out before I can work on the Uchiha Clause!" He gave a quick mock salute before leaping after Ryoga, leaving behind several stunned Genin and two laughing Jonin.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki grinned loudly, no one around him was sure how he managed it but none the less, the blonde-haired, orange-clad genin's smile caused several people near the Konoha gate to stop and look over at him, several men's attention being quickly pulled away by the 'well-endowed' woman that was walking several feet behind the Genin and the white-haired Sannin that was busy writing in his book while glancing over his shoulder at the aforementioned beauty.

"Konoha! Your future Hokage has returned!" the Jinchuriki yelled happily, thrusting a fist into the air. He shot an angry look back at Tsunade who had giggled at his shenanigans, before he ran up and grabbed her arm, "Come on granny, Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei are waiting on you!" he then began to quickly drag her off towards the hospital, causing Jiraiya to chuckle.

"The mark of a true ninja, always thinking of his friends." He sighed looking up exasperated, "Kakashi, you've done well with him," Suddenly the Sannin's attention was drawn towards the forest near training ground three where a large dome of light was being projected into the sky. "Well, might as well go see if I can get into some mischief."

* * *

"Damn it Pork-butt," Ranma yelled as she wrung out her pig-tail using the perfect Shi Shi Hokodan in a friendly spar like that, "you damn near launched me into Konoha!" She swiftly took to the air, somersaulting over the wooden posts and rushing leaping from tree to tree as she closed in on Ryoga, she understood his reasoning, the guy was trying to bleed off the negative feelings that had begun piling up especially with this Orochimaru stuff, and then the Akatsuki on top of that. Ranma didn't, however, approve of being dunked into water against his will. As he neared his rival/friend Ranma hammered into the lost-boys gut with his Amaguriken speed, causing the boy to grimace. Ranma disengaged as his sparring partner brought his umbrella to bear on Ranma, slashing a large gash across the silk shirt that the red-head was currently wearing, Ranma's face turned red as her anger over her favorite red shirt being ruined filled her,

"You Bastard! That is real, Chinese silk! Reijinguburu no Ikari!" The yellow beam that shot out of Ranma's hands send Ryoga flying, blood dripping from his nose due to the show he'd gotten and a bruise rising up on his chest from Ranma's new attack.

Ranma stood panting, she felt much better after that, she suddenly felt a presence approaching and went into her usual "not on guard but actually completely untouchable" stance and looked over towards the newcomer, he was tall (like every frickin' body in this new world) and had long, spikey white hair that went down his back, Ranma was just about to say something to him when she noticed his eyes widen, a single trickle of blood going down from his nose.

Ranma glared at the guy hard before covering her chest, "Do ya mind creepo?" She said reaching into her discarded pack for a new shirt, surprisingly it had survived the Shi Shi Hokodan unlike everything else in the new crater that she was currently occupying.

Jiraiya quickly pulled out a notebook and began to write, muttering something about doing more research, only to look suddenly when he was suddenly no longer holding his precious book, "And then the Buxom Red-haired beauty approached seductively!?, oh hell no this better not be about me!" Jiraiya jumped back, narrowly dodging the kick that had been aimed at him.

"Hey! Give that back, if you want to read it wait till it's published like everyone else!" The Sanin said, leaping forward trying his hardest to retrieve his book, "Don't think I won't use force to get that back just cause you're a girl!"

Ranma for her part simply scoffed before tearing out the last several pages of his 'book,' she threw it back to him and laughed, "As if you could if you tried, and if I see anything about a short red-head in any smutty books, I'll hunt you down and castrate you!"

Before the Pervy-sage could say anything else, a man fell from the sky, aiming a kick at the little red-head, sending her backward through a tree, Jiraiya was about to do something to the man who had just committed a serious assault, when out of nowhere faster than he could follow, the newcomer was punted into him, as both of them carved a trench in the ground the Sanin heard the girl taunt, "That's for being a perv, and for the sneak attack!"

Ryoga winced as he felt where the bruise from the Reijinguburu no Ikari become even more agitated from the small footprint that was now forming over the bruise, "Sorry about that old-timer, Ranma's tough as hell didn't mean to crash into you!" He looked down at the man who was rising to his feet, if a little more slowly than Ryoga himself had, and laughed lightly, "what'd you do to make him send you flying?"

Ryoga noticed that the other man looked intrigued, "You are aware that that was a woman right?"

Ryoga laughed again shaking his head, "Don't let 'her' hear you say that, might get worse than what you just did," he then waved awkwardly before jumping away.

Jiraiya was awestruck, that woman had been faster than almost anyone he'd ever seen, and she hadn't even used any chakra to boot. He resolved then to find out anything he could about his newest "Special Research Project" or Ichi Ichi: Spin-Off, his series for female readers who wanted a strong female protagonist.

* * *

Ranma sighed as the hot water cascaded down his body, glad to be male again. He wasn't sure why but he had an ominous feeling and he knew it was connected to the strange Hentai he'd met in the woods, he was getting ready to meet the newest Hokage, having been told that he was scheduled to meet with her after she'd been settled in, Ryoga had apparently been told the same thing, and the lost-boy had resigned to his room to keep from missing out on the appointment.

Exiting the shower and quickly fixing his pigtail he donned his more formal shirt, a black silk one exactly the same design as the others, and a pair of white pants the inverse of his usual black ones. He sighed before tying his headband around his neck. "I really should invest in that netting stuff some of the other shinobi wear, it'd make changing genders a little less of a hassle I think," He said eyeing himself critically in the mirror, turning to the window, he opened it before jumping up onto the roof, the traffic was more than it had been back in Nerima but it surprisingly still faster than the streets, "Time to visit Kakashi and Sasuke." Naruto had swung by to tell him that his Sensei was awake and recovering, as was the Uchiha kid, and that Sasuke had wanted to see him. Ranma was wondering why the Raven-haired Genin had asked for him but figured he'd find out soon enough. The martial artist decided against entering the hospital through a window, and instead used the main entrance, upon receiving directions to Kakashi's, Ranma quickly made his way into his semi-friends room.

"Ahh, Saotome, I wondered when you'd drop," Kakashi said the ever-present look of disinterest barely covering the hidden smile. Kakashi had a talent for smiling with his eyes.

Ranma merely shook his head, "Don't get the wrong idea," he said jokingly, "I'm just here to see if I should be worried about this Itachi guy,"

The copy-ninja sighed theatrically, "I don't suppose anyone was truly worried about me," he looked Ranma directly in the eye, "if you really want to know, you're faster and stronger, but that doesn't matter much considering he's got a Sharingan and is a master of Ninjutsu. If you finished it quickly you might be able to pull out a win, but if it is a drawn-out affair you've got no chance, plus you can't look into his eyes or you'll have already lost."

Ranma nodded thinking to himself, "Of course he's got those damn cheating eyes," he looked up at Kakashi, "now, on to more important business, your student has asked to speak with me, the Uchiha, any idea why?"

Kakashi sighed his eyes taking on a tired look, "Well, as you may know, Orochimaru wants to take Sasuke, and Sasuke wants to kill Itachi, so Orochimaru offered to train him. However," He gave Ranma a meaningful look, "you beat Orochimaru, and are much closer to home, so if I had to guess, he wants you to train him to be strong enough to beat Itachi."

Ranma's eyes widened, he wasn't opposed to training the kid, hell if it was taking something away from that snake-bastard then he'd gladly do it, he wasn't sure however that he was ready for the responsibility of one being a true sensei, "I'll have to talk to him I suppose, What do you think mister bad-depth-perception?" He asked the older Jonin

Kakashi looked hopeful, "Honestly I think it would keep him from running off to Orochimaru, which at this rate he's likely to do."

Ranma nodded, he resolved to speak to the last Uchiha after he finished with the Hokage.

* * *

Tsunade sat behind her new desk and sighed, she already felt the weight of her position he back finding the chair she was in to be very uncomfortable. "Damn, you'd think after all those years old Sarutobi'd have made the seat a little nicer huh," she said looking over at her most trusted friend and apprentice, "eh Shizune."

The girl simply smiled at her senpai, "Of course lady Tsunade, it seems he didn't want to get too comfortable in office."

The blonde Sanin smiled inwardly remembering the time she'd spent under her Sensei, before looking up at the pictures on the wall, one for each of the former Kage, "Where the hell is this Ranma person!?" she finally yelled, "they were supposed to be here several minutes ago!"

"Damn it P-chan!" the, now female, pigtailed martial artist said as she leaped back onto the room, the sudden downpour had caused both of the cursed martial artists to change, luckily Ryoga's umbrella had been on his back not in his Ki-space at the time so Ranma, now carrying the small black piglet, was shielded from being further soaked as she landed outside the Hokage's building. After traversing the mazelike hallways leading to the top floor, she paused as she heard the Hokage's yell, "Crap, I've already made a bad impression."

She knocked on the door, hearing a sigh and then, "You can come in," Ranma having since dropped her umbrella casually opened the door, and stepped into the room, watching as the look of disproval switched instantly to a look of absolute joy, "Oh my god! He is so cute!"

P-chan was instantly accosted by the busty woman, he squealed contently only to notice the other piglet in the room, she was currently very angry.

Ranma watched as P-chan squealed in terror before making a break for it, the small pink piglet giving chase. She bowed, "I'm sorry Hokage-sama," she said before straightening up and looking the woman over, he appreciated her figure, which the other woman noted proudly, she smiled finally nodding, "I'm Ranma Saotome, and that's P-chan or Ryoga as everyone else calls him."

Tsunade grabbed ahold of her Tonton scolding her lightly before hugging her to herself, "I apologize for Tonton, she's not usually so territorial, I was however under the impression that you were a team of two S-class ninja, not an S-class," she looked Ranma up and down, "and her ninja-pig."

Ranma laughed lightly, this wasn't going to be good for Ryoga, "well, actually we both are cursed," she said, dropping all pretenses with the Hokage, "I change gender when you splash me with water, hot turns me back into a guy, and the hot turns me into a girl, we kinda got caught in the rain…" He flinched as realization dawned on Tsunade her eyes turning murderous as she glared at P-chan, "And my friend here is a guy."

Ryoga sighed as he stood, fully clothed, in front of the Hokage he was prepared to take his punishment, he'd crossed a line after all. He wasn't however prepared for the strength behind the punch, neither was Tsunade prepared for her full powered punch to simply cause the boy in front of her to grunt seemingly un-affected, instead of flying through the wall.

"Damn Ranma, she hits harder than you do," He said with a chuckle as he rubbed his stomach, he stood sheepishly under the critical gaze of the two rather beautiful ninja in front of him, "I'm really sorry about all of that, it's harder to think clearly when I'm in that form, and you smelled really nice."

Tsunade's hard look relented as she sighed, "I guess if it's because of a curse I can't really blame you," she was still surprised by the boy's strength, apparently, he was Ranma's rival which was telling about the other boys strength, "The Hokage left a folder, a very thick folder, on the two of you," she said smiling, "He says you two _each_ are stronger than anyone else in the village, he included himself in that assessment."

Ranma simply nodded, her pride flaring up at that, she was aware that there was no one else in the village as strong as her, she had expected the Hokage to have something on them but the size of their file was large, almost as big as the file that he'd seen on himself and his friends at the one police precinct back in Nerima.

Tsunade was having trouble believing that the two teens in front of her were as powerful as they were, her doubt was off-put by the file on one Itachi Uchiha, who was only slightly older than the pair in front of her, and was just a powerful, she was having trouble grasping the implications of his file, but that was for another day.

"I am going to let you in on everything we have learned of the Akatsuki," Tsunade said, "This information will be considered top-secret and not to be shared with anyone who isn't involved."

An hour later an astonished Ranma and Ryoga were dismissed from the Hokage's office, their minds full of new information about enemies they would likely face in the future.

"Well, I've got an appointment with an Uchiha," Ranma said as she leaped away from her rival.

_**A/n 2(?): Ok, so how do you guys feel about me making Ranma stronger than Jiraiya? I feel like it's reasonable, I personally feel like Hiruzen was the Strongest Shinobi, like the guide books say, and that he was stronger than Orochimaru except for his age, so like we all know Jiraiya is weaker than Orochimaru, and that Hiruzen said that the only people who could beat Orochimaru was Himself, The Fourth, and Itachi, and we know that Jiraiya was alive and a character so the fact that no one considered him to be a candidate is pretty telling about whose stronger there, and I've already established that Ranma adn Ryoga are stronger than Hiruzen so... I did some research, but it's mostly just a bunch of fanboys arguing so... Anyway it's my story so I can do what I want with it. However, I'd like to hear your opinion on the Sasuke situation and stuff.**_


	16. Chapter 15

_**A/n: Ok, here's the chapter, leave a review it gives me an Idea of what you guys might want from the story If you enjoy it let me know if you hate it let me know, shoot me a P.M. if you have any prolific ideas about something zany that could happen.**_

Chapter 15: Clash of Rivals! The Uchiha's Resolve!

Ranma sighed as he took in the sights of the Ninja Village around him, Ninja jumping from roof to roof, citizens carrying groceries to their various homes, children playing in the scattered parks, it still bothered him somewhat how similar the village seemed at times to Japan, the mini-parks with a set of swings, children playing games in the street, yet how different it was at the same time. Outside of the Nerima ward you rarely saw anyone roof hopping, and you definitely only saw visibly armed individuals if you left the inhabited areas or headed deep into rural China. From his position on top of the hospital, perched precariously atop a water tower, Ranma took in all of these sights, a sense of melancholy settling over him, "I'm never getting back am I?" he thought to himself as his thoughts drifted to his friends, the few he had, mostly his one true friend Ukyo, and then to the person he had finally let himself admit to caring for, Akane. After the failed wedding Ranma and Akane's relationship had taken a step back, they argued less but Akane had decided she was sick of all of the drama with the other's, Ukyo had been remorseful even apologetic and had decided that she had overstepped, Shampoo, however, was a different story, she and by extension the old ghoul had flat-out stated that they wouldn't give up. Ranma was at a loss.

"Maybe it's for the best that Ryoga got me lost," he thought to himself, "All I ever did was cause trouble anyway, at least here I've got applicable skills." He stood at this point, leaping down to the roof of the building, "Might as well get this over with."

Ranma latched his feet onto the lip of the roof, hanging upside down and peering into the window, Sasuke was sitting up his face at ease and Ranma could see someone had just exited the room, he sighed to himself once more, pushing his thoughts of Nerima to the side as he opened the window. Sasuke looked over, his face going from defensive to a sort of respectful aloofness, "You wanted to see me?"

Sasuke Uchiha was a lot of things easily surprised was not one of them but the sight of the pig-tailed Jonin hanging upside down outside of his window was surprising to him, he hadn't expected to see the guy actually visiting him, he'd thought that the guy would at least take longer to get back about it first, "Yes, I was hoping that you'd be able to train me to be stronger, stronger than Orochimaru," Tactful was also not one of the things that Sasuke Uchiha could be accused of being.

Ranma flipped himself through the window, landing in a chair that was immediately in front of the window. "And to be stronger than your brother?" he said, also displaying his lack of tact, "Look, I'm good and I could teach you except for the fact that I ain't got no real reason to," He looked at Sasuke's reaction, it was anger, Ranma didn't blame him.

"What would I have to do to prove I was worth training?" The Genin asked, his voice low and contained, "I have to get stronger."

Ranma examined the younger ninja, giving him a critical eye before, in a show of speed that left Sasuke awestruck, he appeared directly next to him leaving an afterimage behind, "How about this, if you can land a single blow on me, just one even if it's just a glancing one, I'll train you," Ranma deftly brought his head back "barely" avoiding the punch that had been aimed for his face, "starting whenever you want to give it a try, and going until you give up, all's fair we're ninja after all." With that Ranma was gone, leaving through the still open window.

Sasuke Uchiha smiled, he had a chance here, even if it was slim.

Ranma Saotome stood atop a streetlight looking down at the abandoned Uchiha Compound, "There's all kinda negative chi here," He glanced around before jumping the distance between himself and the perimeter of the compound, his brain screaming at him all the while, he stopped suddenly wondering why the negative chi hadn't washed away by now, it was almost as if, from what he knew of the afterlife, the spirits were still angry. Knowing what he knew now, and going along with his beliefs they should have known upon their deaths that nothing that had been done had been with malice. He didn't approve of it, Itachi being ordered to eradicate his own family, but he also couldn't willingly condemn an action that he knew was a matter of Honor. He only managed to take several more steps before his stomach lurched, the buildup of negative energy here was becoming too much, and Ranma gave up on his exploration.

Standing in the shadows of the Uchiha compound, having just finished yet another unsuccessful sweep of the compound was Danzo, his gauze-wrapped arm was paining him again, it always did when he was here, he had observed the Saotome boy warily, it was obvious that he was here for a reason, and his sudden departure was odd to the elderly man, yet it was all the better for him.

Ranma was annoyed, he had hoped after the first twenty unsuccessful ambushes the kid would've gotten a bit more creative, but no he still tried to simply rush the far more skilled shinobi. Sitting at the buffet he'd decided was his favorite with Ryoga after a particularly hard spar he had confided in Ryoga his worries that Sasuke wouldn't be able to pull it off, "I'm gonna need your help with this kid Ryo, he's got so much anger and sadness in him that I'm not sure I'll be able to get rid of," he looked his rival in the eyes, "he's like a more violent version of how you were but younger." He shook his head, "I know he needs the help, and I'm afraid he'll do something stupid like run off to Orochimaru if we don't help him."

Ryoga nodded his head, "I understand what you're saying Ranma, and you know I'll help I used to be in a bad way and if it hadn't been for Akari, I'd still be there." He sighed at that, he missed her something serious but going a while without seeing her wasn't anything new.

"Thanks, man. You know it's weird to say after all of this time, but you're a good friend," the pig-tailed martial artist looked over at his long-time rival, "I think I've always considered you a friend."

Ryoga simply shook his head, a smile playing across his face, "And I always hated your guts Saotome, until just after the Herb fiasco, until Akari." Once again the lost boy's face betrayed his hurt, "But yeah, you too."

Several days passed by in a flash for Sasuke, his quest to tag the Jonin was coming up fruitlessly, "Damn it all," he looked around himself quickly spotting the person he'd been searching for, "I know Ranma's routine, I just gotta get the Baka there too." He looked towards the blonde boy who was sitting at the Ramen shop he frequented before walking up, his hands in his pocket, and sitting next to one of his only, how he hated to admit it, friends. Ever since his second run-in with Itachi he'd been trying his hardest to distance himself from Naruto, Itachi's statement that he'd have to kill his best friend in order to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan had rubbed him the wrong way.

"Sasuke! Hey, you want some Ramen?" the young blonde ninja said exuberantly to his friend, "I haven't seen ya in a little while you know, Kakashi still isn't up to training or missions huh?"

Sasuke forced himself not to smile, "I'm not here for food idiot, I'm here to challenge you to a fight, I heard you trained with one of the Sannin, wanna see if kicking your ass has gotten any harder," he let a smirk cross his face as Naruto shouted something about beating him any day, "Fine, meet me at the training ground tomorrow, right after lunch."

Ranma Saotome was surprised, as he approached the training ground he practiced at every day he saw Kakashi's kids fighting, not friendly sparring but full on murderous intent, or so he thought from what he could see of the two, he wasn't sure why but the lightning that was crackling along Sasuke's arm and the blue ball of energy that the Naruto kid was handling gave off such an intense Aura of strength that he was sure he'd be hurt by one, these kids would die for sure. He was deciding how to handle the development when suddenly they launched themselves towards each other, kicking up dirt as they went, he quickly launched himself into the fray, his ki-covered palm blocking each of their attacks as they neared one another. He gaped at the energy discharged, his arm that intercepted Naruto's attack felt like it was about to wrench from the socket, while the electricity that was shot through his arm from Sasuke made the entire thing numb, he turned to Naruto, opening his mouth to say something only to see a large smile play across the Kid's face, he realized something at that point, turning in time to see a foot flashing for his head, he sighed trying to bring his still numb arm up to block but it responded too slowly the foot found his jaw, to his credit he didn't so much as register the hit just a dull pressure on his chin. He was baffled by the incredible display of tactic change, however, "Congratulations, I hope you're ready to be trained into the ground and then some," he said before turning to Naruto, "You wanna train too?" Naruto simply shook his head, "I've got Jiraya for that, and he's training me to be really strong." Ranma nodded glad that the kid wasn't gonna try to train too, turning to Sasuke he tried his best to sound cryptic, "You'll know when trading starts," he then disappeared leaving nothing but an afterimage.

"Well, that was cryptic," the Jinchuriki of the leaf said before smiling and running towards Konoha.

As Ranma jumped from tree to tree his danger sense began to go off like crazy, he turned in mid-air just in time to see a red umbrella streak towards his head accompanied by a familiar yell, "Ranma Saotome Prepare to Die!" The pig-tailed Jonin brought his hand up grabbing the umbrella forcing it down towards the ground and using the momentum shift to land on top of a nearby tree, "Ryoga what're you doin out here?" Ranma asked nonchalantly leaning casually against the top of the tree he had landed in.

Ryoga looked up at him from the ground, smiling as he reached towards the bandana he'd tied around his neck, he had moved it after receiving his forehead protector, launching several of his trademark projectiles at Ranma, "Spontaneous Sparring!"

Ranma pulled out a kunai using it to block the razor cloth, "You got lost and I was the first person you ran into right?" Ranma said smugly, ducking under another thrown bandanna.

Ryoga smiled wider before slamming his finger into the tree Ranma was perched on, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" the bottom of the tree exploded outward and Ryoga laughed out loud, "I figured out how to use it on organic matter!" this declaration caused Ranma to gasp, "That's insane Ryoga, I mean wow, how about we start on cross-training?"

Ranma and Ryoga spent the next several hours watching each other practice, Ranma tied to up and suspended, and Ryoga standing next to a fire.

Several hours later finds Ranma and Ryoga stumbling back to their apartment, Ranma's entire body was aching and Ryoga's hands were bright red. As Ranma fell asleep he set his internal alarm to wake him well before sunrise, "I've got a student to wake up in the morning."

Ranma Saotome would never admit it but his father really was good at something, training, his methods were harsh and unorthodox, but they had forged Ranma into an almost unstoppable fighting machine. Ranma contemplated which of his father's methods he would use on his new student. As he slid the window of Sasuke's apartment open he sighed.

"Well I already decided on one," he thought to himself as he slowly crept up to the sleeping Uchiha, "NO TIME FOR SLEEP, IT'S TRAINING TIME!" he said as he flung the genin out of the still open window, quickly following behind him.

"Good, he's awake enough to not crash into any walls," Ranma thought as he landed on the ground beside the still stunned thirteen-year-old who was trying to assess the situation, "No time to prepare! Defend yourself!" He yelled as he launched himself at the raven-haired ninja. Ranma was only pushing moving as fast as Rock Lee could at the end of their training, and was glad to see that his pupil could keep up with him even if he was struggling a bit.

Sasuke was beginning to understand what Ranma had meant when he said that he'd know when training began, sadly he was having a hard time figuring out when it ended, after the morning "spar" as Ranma called it, the two had gone to a buffet, where the older boy had used a pair of chopsticks to make getting a decent meal impossible, he'd quite literally snatched food out of his mouth, he didn't eat that food but it was the principle. Now the pair was standing at a training ground getting ready for his first lesson, apparently, he was going to be learning the "Saotome School of Anything Goes" the style created by Ranma's father.

"This style is an amalgamation of every style my father and I have ever encountered, in fact since I've gotten here I've picked up some of the Gentle Fist and Guy's style, It is an offshoot of the main school, and was adapted for aerial combat with a focus on maneuverability. The first thing we will focus on is speed, it doesn't matter how hard an opponent hits if they can't touch you," Ranma paused smiling inwardly to himself as he recalled his father's words to him, "The only way to get faster is to train your body, and your reflexes," he suddenly disappeared before reappearing behind Sasuke lightly flicking him on the back of the head, "you see?" he deftly dodged the fist that had been flung at him seeming to teleport across the training ground.

"We'll skip the basics, your style will change as we spar, no practitioner has a similar style after all, so defend yourself!"

To say that Sasuke was sore was an understatement, he was more bruise than person at this point. He spared a look over at his Sensei who was meditating, upside-down lotus position the look of serenity on his face a direct contrast to his usual watchful expression.

"You're suppose ta be meditating," the pig-tailed Jonin said his eyes still closed.

Sasuke grimaced, "I don't see the point," he rolled over, sitting straight up, "I can't see why we aren't training."

Ranma looked at his interim student, "Mental control is just as, if not more important than any amount of combat prowess, Anything Goes practitioners are expected to master Insult-Fu, if you can't keep your anger in check then you can be easily goaded, then you will abandon control and fight on instinct alone," He slowly rolled over so he was seated in front of Sasuke, "If you're easily angered you'll be more likely to lose because you jump in without thinking, besides I thought that cursy thing on your neck fed on negative emotions?" He reached out and tapped the seal on the Uchiha's neck, "If you gotta worry about actually losing control of your mind then you'd definitely need to focus on control."

Sasuke huffed, "Of course I'm strong enough to not need this stupid curse mark," he stood closed his eyes, "I guess I see your point it's just so boring."

Ranma smiled, "I thought the exact same thing, I'm just glad I'm not having to make him angry then beat the tar out of him to prove the point like pops did to me."

Ryoga Hibiki sighed, ever since Ranma had taken on Sasuke as his student he'd been having trouble getting a good spar in and other than getting lost there wasn't anything else Ryoga was good at, "I guess I could see if there are any missions I can do solo…"

As he approached the Hokage's building Ryoga noticed Naruto standing at the gate surrounded by several Genin, some he knew, other's he had seen before, and standing beside him was the spikey guy that Ranma and Ryoga had run into in the forest several weeks before, "Hey, what's going on?" He asked as he approached, the blonde genin simply smiled and ran up to him, "Hey Ryoga-sensei, I'm going to train with the Pervy Sage!" the Jinchuriki of the Leaf smiled wider, "I'm gonna get strong enough that those Akatsuki jerks won't know what hit them!" Ryoga smiled widely too, damn this kid's optimism was infectious, "Well, when will you be back?" He asked trying hard not to chuckle.

Naruto looked over at Jiraiya, "I'm not sure, he said it could be a while, like years," his face suddenly became solemn, "I've gotta be able to protect myself and our village, especially if I want to be Hokage."

Ryoga nodded, "I've gotta admit, I'll miss seeing you around the village for a while, but I wish you the best of luck." He turned away at that before turning back to say something else, only to find himself swept into a hug, "Thanks Ryoga, for all the training, tell Ranma I said bye, and tell Sasuke he'd better keep up!" With that, he orange-glad genin jogged back to Jiraiya who had turned towards the main gate. Ryoga sighed, "He really is a good kid huh," He turned around for a final time, quickly realizing that the Hokage's building wasn't anywhere near, in fact, he was on the other side of the village, "And where's Tenten when you need her?"

The Shadow projection stood tall looking down at the group of gathered ninja, "You all have your targets, I hope to see progress before long," The ninja known as Pain's voice boomed out from his Silhouette, "This is the start of a new age, the Akatsuki will succeed in this, or perish trying." He looked around as the different figures began to fade until only two remained, "You have something to report?" He said, his voice even.

"The nine-tails is with Jiraiya, it's too dangerous to pursue him for now," His rich voice filled pains ears, "I think it would be best to wait until he has finished his training, despite who his master is, the boy is basically talentless." The missing-nin from Konoha said trying his hardest to sound sincere, he knew that the boy was one of Konoha's best despite outward appearances, and as long as Pain didn't get involved directly he'd be able to avoid the Akatsuki, for a time.

"I will trust your judgment on this Itachi, you know more about the Sannin then I," Now if there is nothing else, he faded away as his words begun to fade from the cave, leaving it empty save the giant Demonic Statue.

_**A/n: I'm done with the dividers, anyway let me know if you want to skip straight to Shippuden with flashbacks to the gap, or want me to write a couple of chapters filling in the gap? Yes it will be Ranma and Ryoga exclusive, and no Orochimaru isn't done yet, he's just busy crying about his loss...**_


	17. Chapter 16

_**A/n: Been a minute, hope you enjoy, I've been trying to improve my writing. So expect the chapters to take longer I guess.**_

Chapter 16: Triumphant Return!Ranma's New Teammate!

Ranma Saotome sighed to himself, it had been a rough four years for him and Ryoga, mostly due to their work as Ninja for the village of Konoha, along with training Sasuke Uchiha. He looked around his small apartment enjoying the small amount of off time he had managed to get in recent months after the increase in Akatsuki activity along with several people claiming to have seen Orochimaru, Ranma had found himself in exceedingly more tedious missions with almost no actual results.

The pigtailed martial artist entered his kitchen and perused the shelves for anything worth eating and was quickly disappointed, "Of course, I'm almost never here so why would there be food?" He paced over to the window before leaping out and over the rooftops. He slowed slightly as he noticed Sasuke, a slight smile on his face, walking along with Sakura, they were talking with Asuma's nephew, heading towards the gate for some reason.

"Sasuke! Wanna swing by Ichiraku's with me?" He asked hanging upside down from a pole close to where they were walking, "It's my treat today," The Jonin said relishing the fact that he could actually treat people nowadays.

Sasuke blinked at the sudden appearance and declined his ex-sensei's offer, "I'm doing something right now," he said before turning and walking away without further ado.

"Whatever," he thought to himself before flipping himself back over and hopping off towards one of best Ramen shops he's ever been to. Konoha was rather peaceful this time of the year, the sun was high in the sky and there weren't many people out and about. The normal hustle and bustle he'd associated with a city once he moved to Nerima, then with Konoha once he had been brought here was essentially non-existent at the moment, and it filled his heart with content. He sighed, occasionally Akane would come to mind or his mother, but he had accepted that he would probably never see them again, "Four years, it's crazy how much more at home I feel in this world than I ever did in Nerima." He stopped his musing as he entered the Ramen shop, the smell of delicious Ramen filling his nose.

"Ahh, Ranma, it's been a while, how long have you been back in town?" Ichiraku asked amiably, already starting to make what he knew the younger man would order, "I thought with Naruto leaving town I'd see a decrease in revenue, but you make up for that easily." Ichiraku laughed gently before placing the steaming bowl down in front of the Jonin and then turning to serve a young woman who had approached the stand.

Ranma sighed as he silently at the large bowl of Ramen, "Naruto huh, He was training with that Jiraya perv right?" he thought to himself, "I wonder if he actually surpassed Sasuke."

Ranma let his mind wander back to the year he had spent training with the Uchiha, "Th kid grew quite a bit didn't he?" Sasuke had been the only member of his class to be promoted to Jonin after he made chunin in the exam, unsurprisingly he had simply huffed and accepted the flak vest before disappearing into the forest to train. Ranma laughed as he remembered the young man challenging Kakashi only to be humiliated as the older Jonin easily dominated him.

Ranma was pulled from his reverie as he felt a familiar presence approaching, he turned to his partner, the eternally lost boy, P-chan, more commonly known as Ryoga, the slightly taller boy, adorned in his flamboyant yellow shirt, covered by his Jonin Jacket and sporting the Konoha headband, was approaching a woman.

"Pardon me, ma'am, Can you direct me to Ichiraku's Ramen?" The woman gave Ryoga a confused look before pointing over his shoulder towards where Ranma was seated at the shop. He promptly thanked her and began to walk in the opposite direction, only to be stopped as he heard his name being called, he turned towards the sound and spotted Ranma sitting all alone and waving at him. The Pig-headed martial artist hurried over to Ranma before he could get lost again and sighed before plopping down in a seat. "You called us over to discuss our next mission right?" He politely nodded towards Ichiraku before shaking his head at the man's questioning gaze.

Ranma nodded, slurping the mouthful of Ramen he had already shoved into his mouth, "apparently we are to report to Tsunade's for our assignment, it's apparently something big."

"It's probably about a new team member," Sasuke had gone back to Team 7 after becoming a Jonin, making Ranma's team into a duo once more. Ryoga sighed, "I hope it isn't some weirdo, We've been pretty lucky lately, no people swearing vengeance on you or anything, and no ridiculous challenges to complete."

Ranma rolled his eyes, "Yeah, because you had to deal with so much of that before," He pushed his bowl across the counter before laying out the cash for the meal, plus tip, and made his way towards the Hokage's tower, with Ryoga in tow. As they neared the tower they noticed Sasuke, along with Sakura, and to their surprise Naruto, heading towards the training field, he quickly noticed Kakashi ghosting them from on top of the building, making sure to stay out of sight, he also noticed that all three of the Ninja realized this, and we're trying to avoid making it obvious. He chuckled to himself as he turned away from the trio and continued towards the Hokage's tower. "I guess Naruto's back," He said to Ryoga, "I wonder if Tsunade knows."

Ranma sucked in his breath, holding it in before blowing it out loudly, "She is the only person to ever scare me more than when I was worried about the seppuku contract," he thought to himself before he entered the Hokage's office, "You called Lady Tsunade?" he approached the desk, Ryoga directly beside him and waited patiently.

Tsunade slowly turned around in her chair, before observing the two Jonin in front of her, "I realize you two work great as a duo, however it is protocol for Ninja teams to work in groups of three, I hope you get along well with your newest member, He is currently on a mission for the Anbu and will be rendezvousing with you at last known location of the missing-nin we are sending you to apprehend.

Ranma smiled, "I expected as much, if there is nothing else, we'll be on our way to the rendezvous once we get the details from the desk." He turned to walk away before stopping, "Naruto's back, by the way, didn't know if you'd heard." He stopped when he heard the gasp, turning around with a smile on his face, "See Tsunade, I knew you'd be interested in that, apparently Jiraiya was told to wait until your 'urgent meeting was over' I figured I'd steal his thunder."

Tsunade smiled, suppressing a chuckle, "This'll get him going all right, I hope you enjoyed your three years of quiet, it'll get quite a bit more hectic now that he's back around, now GET OUT OF HERE SO I CAN SPEAK WITH JIRAIYA!" she yelled suddenly, throwing a book, which was narrowly avoided, that stuck into the wall, Ranma and Ryoga quickly made their retreat out of the building, swinging back by the desk to pick up the details.

* * *

Gaara of the Sand sighed inwardly, while Outwardly showing no sign of his boredom, "Being Kazekage is possibly the most boring things I could have done isn't it?" He looked out the window noticing a bird flying high, it's size was deceptive, however, he knew no bird of that size existed in this part of the world, "How odd," He quickly stood up before exiting his office.

The Kazekage stared up at the large bird, noticing small objects begin to fall off of it. He quickly extended a giant hand catching the objects in his hands, "Oh," he said as a series of large explosions so hot that they turned part of the hand to glass before the limb collapsed. He quickly formed another one extending it rapidly towards the bird. "You won't escape."

As he gripped the bird it also exploded violently outward, causing sand to rain down on the city, and Gaara spotted a figure falling towards the ground, he landed gracefully on the ground in front of the Kazekage, before standing up. "Gaara of the one-tail, you will come with me peacefully or I'll be forced to take you." The tall blonde man(?) chuckled before reaching into his pouch, bringing out several clay figures, he threw them towards Gaara who quickly raised a wall of sand that blocked the blast, before launching a counter-attack, several tendrils of sand stretched out toward the ninja who was threatening his village.

"The fun way it is," the figure exclaimed as a large clay bird swooped down and carried him into the air, "Time for some art! Or as I like to call it, an Explosion!" The Kazekage simply extended a large claw of sand, the appendage chased him until the ninja escaped his range, and the ninja began to form a giant ball of clay. Gaara's eyes widened as he realized the massive destructive power that could be behind a ball of clay that large if the smaller sculptures explosive power was any indication. "This is my Masterpiece!" the blonde ninja exclaimed as a ball, roughly the size of a small house began to descend towards Gaara's village, he gritted his teeth as he reached out to as much of the sand in the area as he could, he felt his ki reserves begin to strain as he began to lift the desert towards the ball, beginning to surround the ball in the clay. As he looked around, relief beginning to flood into him he heard a chuckle, "It's often the smaller pieces that complete a gallery." he heard the voice of the nin saying as he struggles to fully contain the explosion, he heard the flapping of wings as no doubt the ninja sent more clay birds to attack him, but he couldn't allow the explosion to reach the ground, he smiled a grim smile as he felt the heat of several explosions blanket him and then darkness.

* * *

Ranma yawned as he leaned against a tree, the ninja they had been hired to hunt down was supposed to be a pale teenager, armed with a sword and a bag. He looked around as the ninja he was after noticed Ryoga trailing him, of course, the Ninja they were trailing was extremely dangerous, Ranma had already lost his trail three times, he seemed to be more willing to avoid confrontation than seek it out and his ability to disappear from both Ranma and Ryoga's gaze so easily spoke to his skill, and if he was as skilled in fighting as he was in subterfuge it was going to be fun fight for Ranma, he very rarely got excited about these missions lately.

Ranma quickly fell under the Umi-Sen-Ken as he began to flank the ninja who they were going to be ambushing, Ryoga was being the decoy, and Ranma was going to attack from the side when his guard was down. As he entered the alley he heard the conversation between Ryoga and his enemy.

"I suppose this is where you'll be ambushing me?" The young man said, his hand rummaging in his bag, "I hope you're prepared for a fight." He said as he unrolled a long scroll, two ink lions suddenly sprouting from the page." Ryoga suddenly sprung forward his fist going through the closest of the lions. The ninja didn't hesitate he rushed forward blade drawn, swinging at Ryoga, who ducked under the attack, the blade slicing through a bit of hair on his head.

Ryoga rolled backward, flipping onto his hands, pulling out several of the pieces of cloth he had begun to carry instead of his old bandana's about a year ago, using his ki to strengthen them to the hardness of steel, the triangle ends of the cloth becoming sharp as any kunai, he flung them at the ninja, who began to duck and dodge around the cloth, he deflected one, it cut a notch into his sword, so he quickly decided to dodge rather than block. At this point Ranma made his move, and the ninja let out a surprised yelp as he felt a powerful blow connect with his back, as he landed, twisting around and landing on the wall, he pulled out his scroll, two more lions emerged from the scroll, only to be quickly dispatched by the same unseen force that had attacked him, "Danzo didn't mention that the Nin I was to intercept would have some sort of invisibility jutsu," He began to paint frantically as randomly hopped around, weaving around the occasional cloth blade, "When are the reinforcements from Konoha going to arrive?"

Ranma stopped suddenly, he quickly removed the thief's cloak, moving in at top speed, putting the other ninja in a full nelson, "Calm down now, WE ARE the ninja from Konoha," he spun the younger man around, looking at his headband, "And I assume you're Sai?" He took a step back, visibly shaken, "I- ah, yes, I am Sai, I assume you are Ranma? And your friend here must be Ryoga." He sighed, "I had heard of their prowess, but to be taken so easily what would the others think?" He looked up, pulled from his thoughts by a polite clearing of the throat from Ryoga, "So, is there not a Ninja we should be tracking down?"

Sai smiled, "I was sent here to capture two rogue nin, but that was a ruse, however I was given a secondary task, I am to present Saotome, Ranma with this this," He then pulled out a sealed scroll, it had a large smiley face on it, which caused Ranma to groan, Sai continued, "I was told you would know what to do with it."

Ranma sighed, "Yeah I know what to do with it." He then removed a thermos and poured it over his head, holding the scroll close to his body, suddenly standing in front of Sai was a short, red-haired Kunoichi, "Interesting Jutsu," Sai thought impassively, as Ranma opened the scroll, "We devised a way for these scrolls to be opened only by Ryoga and myself, we have special 'bloodlines' that these scrolls only become unsealed when exposed to our jutsu." Ranma explained as she dried off, handing the scroll over Ryoga who scanned it before smiling slightly and handing it over to Sai. Sai quickly scanned the scroll before looking up at Ranma who smiled at him, "Looks like we have a mission!" Ranma exclaimed.

* * *

Tsunade's eyes widened as she heard the report from Temari, "You're telling me that your Kazekage has been abducted?" She stood, "Team 7, you will accompany Temari to the land of the sound, where Sakura will try to cure Kankuro of this poison, and then you will link up with a team that is nearby in order to rescue Gaara, Dismissed!"

* * *

Ranma rolled up in her sleeping bag, the downpour that had suddenly struck was typical of her luck, she was glad that the tent was large enough for all of them, they had picked it up when Sasuke was still with them, and despite Sai being larger than Sasuke was when they had picked it up the tent still had room to spare. She sighed as she sat up, the chill from the water still clinging to her frame. She quickly reached into her pack pulling out one of her cold-weather blankets, the temperature had begun to drop dramatically, she sat bolt upright when suddenly she noticed her breath in front of her. "Shit," she sprang up, using martial arts quick change to be clothed in her martial arts gi before she exited her tent, "Ryoga! Sai! Outside now!" She yelled as she ducked under a large blade, made of ice, the blade sliced through several strands of hair, she somersaulted onto her feet, only to slip on a patch of ice, sliding along her back for several seconds she finally managed to get her feet under her. She quickly leaped up into a tree, using her ki to warm her body. She quickly launched herself at her opponent, her fist connecting with the flat of the blade, a thin crack spread across the surface of the blade, and Ranma winced, "I just hit that as hard as I could, yet it didn't even chip!" she thought to herself as she hopped over the swipe from the Missing Nin, He was about a head taller than Ranma in is male from, his sword was as large as Ukyo's spatula had been, the fur coat he wore had no sleeves, which Ranma thought was ridiculous, who the heck would wear a sleeveless coat made of fur? She sprinted forward, quickly rolling under the blade, lashing out with a multitude of punches, most of which were blocked by the ninja's free hand, "Shoulda been more careful, listened to my instincts, I knew that rain wasn't natural, then the onset of cold was so sudden," She chastised herself.

Ranma leaped into the air, landing nimbly on the blade that the Ninja, the "Snow Demon" of the village hidden in the Flurries, had used to block her kick, using it as a springboard to gain even more height. At this moment Ryoga came out of the tent, shivering as he exited into the ice-covered landscape, "What the hell is going on out here?" He asked as he spotted Ranma in battle with the snow ninja, "Bakusei Tenketsu!" the pig-boy yelled as he drove his index finger into the ground, the ground collapsed and rubble flew into the air, this effect reached to the ninja's feet, causing him to lose his balance.

Ranma took advantage of the ninja's loss of footing to spin, rolling in the air, her foot colliding with the barely pulled up arm, he heard a loud crack as the ninja's arm completely broke off, the ninja's body suddenly turned translucent, before crumpling into multiple shards of Ice. Suddenly from all around them, white-clad ninja burst from the environment, most carrying only kunai, but a few carried swords and other ninja tools. Ranma jumped backward, landing beside Ryoga, pulling his arms in, he launched a Moko Takabisha, the light from the attack lighting up the area, showing that there were at least a dozen ninja all around them. From inside the tent came two ink lions, followed quickly by Sai, who had his sword drawn.

Ranma moved quickly using the distraction that Sai's appearance caused to close with the nearest of his opponents, fire off a barrage of Amaguriken speed punches, quickly incapacitating the first enemy he approached, when suddenly two ninja both attacked from the side, one from the left, the other from the right. Meanwhile, Ryoga was under barrage by three ninja, two of which were throwing shuriken from a safe distance, while the third was busy trying to not get hit by Ryoga's punches, he realized that being hit by the Jonin from Konoha was a nad idea when he had punched through a tree. Ryoga finally got sick of the barrage of kunai, the annoyance helping to fuel his Shishi Hokodan, which he quickly launched, one in each hand at the ninja who had been throwing Kunai, the first dodged out of the way, the second was to slow and was launched backward, impacting a tree, causing him to pass out. Ryoga used the momentary lapse in attention to close with the third ninja, who had taken his eyes off of Ryoga to watch the effects of Ryoga's attack, a single solid hit dropped the ninja, and Ryoga quickly dispatched the other with his Cloth Kunai. He looked around and saw that Sai had already dispatched four ninja, while Ranma was working on a fifth. He looked around for a moment before spotting the last ninja, the Snow Demon himself, Ryoga smiled and quickly approached. The Snow Demon quickly brought up his sword, which Ryoga brought his fist down onto, the sword surprisingly held up, it cracked all along its length, the ninja grimaced as his wrist bore the monstrous strength behind Ryoga's arms, he quickly brought his finger forward, preparing to use the breaking point on the sword only for the ninja to knee him in the gut, knocking him backward, Ryoga rolled landing upright his hands lashing out launching several of his cloth kunai towards the ninja who deflected them, the Snow Demon launched his sword, stringing together a series of hand signs, suddenly a cold wind began to surround the ninja, "Ninja Art: Absolute Zero!" came the grizzled voice of the ice ninja. Ryoga felt the air beginning to become significantly colder, his fingers began to turn blue on the ends, "Fuck," he thought, gotta end this fast.

Ryoga quickly closed the distance, his fists lashing out towards the missings nin's head, the man, seemingly unaffected by the cold, easily caught the fist, swinging Ryoga around into a tree. Ryoga clenched his teeth as he felt his ribs creak. He grabbed ahold of the ninja's wrist with his free hand, Ryoga smiled as he headbutted the ninja, extremely hard, the ninja's head snapped back, he looked down at Ryoga, blood seeping from his busted lip. He smiled, causing the blood to come even faster, he threw a headbutt back at Ryoga. He slumped, the cold finally getting to him, the Ninja smiled, "This cold gives me strength," He spat out as he dropped Ryoga's unconscious body, he spotted Sai next, his painted lions were circling the slumped figure, Sai was a shivering mess. Suddenly out of nowhere, Ranma Saotome burst through the snow, her fist flashing towards him faster than he could see. The snow demon tries to block the attack, his head goes mostly unharmed but the barrage leaves several immediately apparent bruises on the Ninja's torso, Ranma follows it up with a leg sweep, only to be countered, her leg connects with the blunt side of the Snow Ninja's sword, and Ranma feels a snap as her shin connects with the weapon.

"Fuck!" Ranma grits out through her teeth, "That hurt more than it should've," She quickly leaped back, only to fall to one knee as her injured leg fails to handle the weight she tried to put into it. She barely managed to block the follow-up stroke from his sword, her Ki the only thing stopping the blade from slicing through her hands, she is flung back into a tree, her head colliding knocking her out as she collides with the frozen wood.

Sai shivered, he was hastily painting in his scroll, the shivering was throwing off his body flicker so he was taking the slower method, he had almost finished with his Benevolent King, "just a second longer," he thought to himself, "Finished!" he quickly pulled the scroll to full length as the Nio quickly flared to life, it's fist connected with the Snow Demon's head, he flung backward, hitting the same tree Ranma had collided with passing through the tree and crumbling into a heap on the ground. Sai stopped shivering as the temperature immediately began to increase, gotta get these two bandaged up. He promptly collapsed.

As Ranma came two she realized two things, she was still alive, and that she was no longer freezing cold. She surveyed her surroundings and noticed a groaning Ryoga and a passed out Sai, littered all around them were the unconscious bodies of the Snow Demons lackeys, and pinned under a large tree was the struggling form of the Snow Demon himself. Ranma got up, groggily, moving towards Ryoga, who was the closest to being on their feet again. "Come on Ryo ole pal, we gotta get you up and at em." She quickly began to help Ryoga to his feet.

"Ryoga gosh, you've gained some weight, either that or," She quickly fell over as her leg gave out from under her again, "Oh, yeah, even with my ki to help heal me it'll be a while for a broken leg huh."

Ryoga Hibiki groaned as he slowly was dragged back to the world of the living, his head was beginning to really hurt him, he noticed Ranma sitting on the ground a few yards away, using some of the gauzes from Ryoga's pack to tightly bind her leg, Sai was still knocked out, his chakra had barely managed to pull off the stunt that had saved them. "What happened?" Ryoga wondered out loud, "Ranma did you do this?" he asked motioning to the tree.

"No, I think Sai did," She looked around before standing to test her leg," this is alright for now," She stood quickly, moving towards Sai, pulling out her thermos on the way, "Wakey Wakey sleepyhead," She the poured water on him, he sputtered as he was brought suddenly to wakefulness, "Oh, it is you, I thought I might not have finished him in time," Sai said slowly sitting up.

"You did good kid, you did good," Ranma said, as he began to tie up the Snow Demon, starting with his arms.

Ranma, Ryoga, and Sai began the long journey back to Konoha with the Snow Demon in tow.

* * *

Might Guy smiled, across from him stood one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, "Ah, so the Akatsuki have even recruited from the Mist?" The Jonin from the Leaf was quickly beginning to get on the man's nerves, "Of course you are no match for my powers of youth!"

* * *

Ranma Saotome sighed as he stood in front of the Hokage, "of course Sasuke goes and gets himself in trouble the instant Naruto gets back," he looked back at the Hokage, "and you're sure you don't want us to go?"

Tsunade nodded, "I have absolute faith in Kakashi and his team, especially Guy now on the scene."


	18. Chapter 17

_**A/n: I think you guys are McNuggets, which is a good thing, I'm posting this before the second story I'm gonna start, just a thing I had rattling around in my brain probably not going to go super far compared to this story. I'm not stopping this story just adding another to my repertoire of Ranma 1/2 fanfics. There was only one Ranma/Akame Ga Kiru crossover and it had potential but it ended oddly, check it out it's the one not by me! And check out the one I'm posting too if you feel up to it. I feel like Ranma/ Akame ga Kill will have some potential and we'll see where it goes.**_

Chapter 17: Interlude

Ranma sighed in relief as he laid eyes on Konoha, the trek back to the village had been a long one and all he wanted to do now was take a nap, "Let's hurry up and get back, I've got a hot date with my bed!"

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha grimaced as he dodged the barrage of attacks from the small army of puppets that had been summoned by the Akatsuki member Sasori of the Red Sands, he glanced towards his teammate Sakura who was talking in a hushed voice with the healer from the sand. "Thank god Ranma put such an emphasis on speed training," he thought to himself as he blocked another attack, he quickly jumped over one puppet only to be quickly knocked into the ground as he tried to parry another. "If only there weren't so damn many of them!"

"Stop running damn it!" Naruto yelled as he chased after Deidara along-side Kakashi, "You coward, fight us!"

Kakashi turned his head towards Naruto, "I've got an idea."

Ranma smiled enthusiastically as he scarfed down his second bowl of Ramen, the streets of Konoha were quiet around him and he was glad to finally have a moment of quiet, "Hey Ichiraku-san, You ever notice how much quieter it is when Team Kakashi isn't around?" He pushed his bowl forward and laid the money for his Ramen on the counter, "Let's see what we can do 'bout that?"

He leaped up onto the nearest building heading for the training ground when suddenly an idea struck him and he veered off towards the Hokage's building. As he jumped from building to building he smiled the wind kissed his face and the cloudless sky shone a bright beautiful blue.

"Man it sure is nice today," he thought to himself as he landed in front of the Hokage's office. As he approached the door he ran directly into Iruka, "Hey watch where your goin!" He said as the taller man bounced off of him, "What's got you in such a rush anyway?"

Iruka looked the Martial Artist over, "I was headed back to the academy, I was supposed to have a Jonin come to be a guest today, explain the importance of vigilance on the Battlefield but Genma canceled last minute and no one else seems to be available.

The Jonin sighed "I take it that means Guy is still out on his mission, I could do it I guess."

Several hours later Ranma held his head between his hands, "Me and my big mouth," he looked up at the children seated in front of him, fixing his glare on Konohamaru the Grandson of Asuma had been a pain ever since Iruka had introduced him to the class.

"You're a jonin?" the upcoming Genin said the tone of disbelief was beginning to grate on Ranma's nerves, "I bet boss Naruto could take you!"

Ranma smiled, "I can see the influence that Naruto's had on you," He began to write on the board with a piece of chalk, "However, Naruto is a Genin, and I am a Chunin." He drew a quick diagram showing the ranks of a Shinobi, "At the age of 18, I became a Special Jonin," he added another Rank above that of Jonin," Now, unless Naruto takes the Chunin exam and then meets the requirements to become a Jonin in less than two years I will remain his superior in terms of Rank for the foreseeable future." Ranma chuckled lightly, "As you all most likely know, a Ninja is more than their Rank, Iruka-sensei here is a Chunin," Ranma paused as a chuckle swept over the class, his brows furrowed as he turned around a stern look on his face, "However, He is easily as strong as many of the Jonin in the village," he turned towards Iruka, "He hasn't gone through the procedure to advance because he cares about his students, he wants to make sure that each and every upcoming ninja is suited for this world."

Konohamaru's face became serious and Ranma could tell he hadn't thought of it that way before. Ranma continued his speech, "Every Shinobi follows a Nindo, a ninja way, my personal one is that it's the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak, the strength of a Ninja's conviction is what governs a ninja's worth, a ninja could become the most powerful ever to exist but if he abuses his power he is nothing more than a monster." Iruka smiled at the speech, " while I hadn't meant for this to become an ethics lesson what Ranma is telling you all is great advice, however we have run out of time for the day, I hope you will reflect on his words."

Ranma felt his face widen into a grin as he walked with Iruka, "I'm glad I don't have to try to do that every day, You've got quite a bit of guts to face down a classroom full of students every day."

Iruka scratched the back of his head as he smiled earnestly, "It's a lot easier than you think, I just hope they all become great ninja someday."

"With you teaching them I'm sure they will."

* * *

Naruto stood with his team, Sasuke was supporting a heavily injured Sakura, his own countenance marred with scratches and cuts, "So, he was gonna meet up with a spy he has watching Orochimaru?" Naruto asked his voice more serious than usual, he had been more serious than usual ever since Chiyo had sacrificed herself to resurrect Gaara he had been sedated.

"We should follow up on this information, it is supposed to happen in a week at the Tenchi Bridge," Sasuke said, "but with Kakashi in the condition he's in we won't be able to run a mission to its fullest, we need to take back to Konoha and tell the Hokage what we've learned."

Naruto repositioned his Sensei on his back, "You're right he's totally out of it at this point, let's hurry back."

* * *

Ranma ducked under the fist that had just been jabbed at his face easily avoiding the punch from his newest teammate. "You've gotta be faster than that if you wanna land a hit on me Sai," he taunted as stayed a step ahead of the Jonin.

Sai gave a slight smile as he stopped his assault, "You are correct, you are much too fast for me."

Ranma stumbled backwards, tripping over a rock and falling onto his back landing in a puddle on the ground. When she sat up she saw her teammate showing his usual lack of reaction when something like that happened around Ranma. Suddenly from the bushes came the sound of footsteps and out came a very confused looking Ryoga, "My sense of direction must be getting better," He looked up at Ranma, "Because I actually made it here on time!"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope we just finished out session actually."

Ryoga looked crestfallen before suddenly perking up, "Oh yeah I ran into Naruto and Sasuke!"


	19. Chapter 18

_**A/n: Chapter 18 is done! It was fun to write and we get to see where the story will start to diverge from Canon a bit more than it already has. I'm hoping that everyone enjoys and also check out my newest story, Don't forget to review this story to tell me what you like and don't like, as well as to let me know if you think my writing style has improved any since I've been trying to do better considering how "Rushed" my other chapters seemed. I hope you guys don't get used to me updating so frequently either because I've just been in the writing mood lately.**_

Chapter 18: Orochimaru vs Team Kakashi! Ranma Vs. Hidan!

Naruto Uzumaki looked at Kakashi's temporary replacement Yamato, "Woah, you look exactly like Sasori's puppet!" Naruto smiled as he turned towards Sasuke, "Could you pull that off with the Sharingan?"

Sasuke scoffed, "No, I don't happen to possess the affinity for wood release." Naruto looked puzzled for a moment then shrugged. Sasuke shook his head, "You really didn't pay any attention in school did you Naruto?"

Naruto puffed up his chest, "What'd you say Sasuke?!" He pressed his chest up against Sasuke's, "I'll have you know I'm probably stronger than you now!"

Sasuke chuckled, "Even if that was true I'm much more intelligent than you so I could still beat you in a fight if I was weaker than you, which I'm not."

Yamato sighed, "I don't care which one of you is stronger," he said in almost the same voice that the puppet had, "We've got a mission to complete and as you can see," he turned towards the bridge he could see through the trees, "The "contact" is down there waiting so my voice had better be perfect."

* * *

"All you care about is money," came the voice of a Shinobi clad in a Red and Black cloak, "Jashin has no need for monetary gain, and I only need what Jashin needs." He twirled his three-bladed scythe around his head, "Even with your money-hungry attitude do we really need to take time out of our schedule to detour to this temple?"

* * *

Ranma Saotome laughed as he ducked under a kick, "You're getting better Lee," He blocked another kick from the green-clad shinobi before jumping over an attack from behind, "so are you Neji," He quickly rolled out of the way of the barrage of Kunai and Shuriken, "And Ten-Ten you've gotten way better at deciding when to attack." He grunted as Lee connected a kick to his chest causing him to skid back directly into a short barrage of jabs from Neji, "You've been practicing teamwork," He jumped straight into the air as more Kunai went by. "You've all gotten much better, Neji your attack speed is getting ridiculous, you need to work on your non-chakra based pressure points, however, that hurt like hell but if you'd hit the right spots I'd have been out of it for a while."

He clapped, "Ok, practice is over, you can tell where you need to improve." He turned to Gai and waved, "I've got to meet Ryoga and Sai we're slotted to get a mission soon so…" Gai waved him off then turned back towards his team, Ranma promptly leaped away.

* * *

Ryoga looked around in confusion, "Where the hell am I?" He saw two men facing off against a man dressed as a monk, "None of my business," he thought as he turned and walked away. Before long he found himself on a dirt road, another man dressed similarly to the monk he had seen a little while before was running towards where Ryoga had just stepped onto the path,. "Hey, what's the rush?" He asked the obviously scared man.

"My temple is under attack by two powerful mercenaries," the man explained, "I'm going to speak with the Hokage." He brushed past Ryoga before stopping suddenly noticing Ryoga's headband, "You're a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf? Can you take me there?"

Ryoga thought for a moment before nodding, "Maybe I should find Ranma."

* * *

Ranma sat in his apartment trying to make small talk with Sai, "Damn it Ryoga why'd you have to go and get lost again?" Suddenly there was a knock at the door, when he opened it he saw the Shinobi who usually guarded the gate, Genma, "What's up?"

"Your teammate is at the Hokage's office, there's an urgent mission for you."

* * *

Tsunade ground her teeth together, "So you're telling me two Akatsuki members attacked your temple, in order to collect the bounty on the head of your lead monk?" She asked the stress of recent events was getting to her, "First Orochimaru seems to have become active again, and now the Akatsuki has reared its head in my backyard."

The monk nodded, "It didn't seem like he'd be able to last long against them."

The Hokage grimaced, "I will dispatch one of my best squads immediately, "Ryoga thank you for bringing him here, as soon as Genma returns with Ranma, she turned towards the white-haired Jonin, I will be dispatching your team to apprehend the Akatsuki members."

* * *

Orochimaru growled at the Uchiha that was standing in front of him, "You denied me the body I needed now I will be eliminating you and your little friends."

Sasuke glared at the pale man, "You can try, but as you are now you'll barely be a problem for me and Naruto much less Sakura and the Captain too."

Orochimaru hissed before rushing Sasuke who was immediately put on the defensive, "You were saying weakling?" The Sannin kicked Sasuke in the chest, easily dodging the Ninjato that Sasuke had swiped at him, "Look at you," the sannin continued "If you had come to me when I had asked you to you would be many times stronger than that sad excuse for a shinobi you call a friend."

* * *

Yamato jumped over Kabuto's attack, "Sakura go find Naruto and Sasuke, It'll take all of us to handle Orochimaru once we find him!"

"Yes, Sir!" She turned towards the door that had been closed and locked behind them and promptly smashed through it.

* * *

Ranma opened the door to the Hokage's office and saw Ryoga sitting in one of the chairs, "Yo, what's up Lady Tsunade?" He held the door open for Sai who sat down next to Ryoga.

"The Akatsuki has people in the Land of Fire," Tsunade said, the sunlight coming through the window casting shadows over her face as she turned to face them, "I am sending you three to capture if possible, kill if necessary," The Hokage sat down, "They can not be allowed to escape."

Ranma nodded, "You know how I feel about taking lives needlessly," The martial artist said, "If we can get them here alive we will."

"Then you are dismissed."

* * *

Naruto awoke in one of the corridors of Orochimaru's hideout, "Damn it!" He looked around before sprinting towards where he could hear fighting, "That bastard got the jump on me!"

Upon entering the room he had been running towards Naruto felt his anger burst forth, Orochimaru was standing over a bruised and unconscious Sasuke, "You Bastard! What did you do to Sasuke!?"

Orochimaru turned towards Naruto a smirk on his face, which quickly disappeared when he saw the red-orange chakra bubbling up around the boy. "Oh, It seems I've poked a sleeping bear." The room suddenly exploded. The walls buckled outward as where the room, as well as a sizable chunk of the underground base was destroyed, in its place was a crater at the bottom of which there were three figures, one unconscious one slightly bemused and the third absolutely full of rage.

"How dare you hurt my friend!" He turned towards Sasuke who had groaned and began to sit up. Suddenly Naruto remembered something Jiraiya had taught him.

"Remember Naruto," the Toad-Sage said, "Fighting angry is like trying to convince a woman to so something she doesn't want to." He smiled, "You'll never manage to win," the Sannin turned towards the Genin at that point, "If you ever find yourself going one on one with someone you think is stronger make sure it's at least with a cool head, if he's stronger than you probably want to be able to reason through the fight a little."

Naruto shook his head as he ran over to Sasuke, "Don't worry buddy, I've got you."

It was at that moment that Orochimaru began to laugh, "You managed to rein it in?!" He took a step towards Naruto and Sasuke who was struggling to his feet, "And here I thought I'd actually have a challenge on my hands."

Suddenly Sakura's foot implanted itself in the ground in front of Orochimaru causing a spray of rocks to force the Sannin back. "I think you've got more than a challenge on your hands."

Team Kakashi quickly formed up, Sasuke now back on his feet harmed but far from done fighting, "You've got to worry about all of us now."

* * *

Ranma, Sai, and Ryoga stared down at the destroyed temple, "It seems we were too late," The former ANBU member stated dryly, "I believe the best place to look next would be the Bounty Station that is several Kilometres in that direction." He said gesturing towards the setting sun, "But we had better hurry there's no telling how much of a lead they may have on us.

Ranma nodded before turning and hopping off of the wall, "Let's hurry up, no telling what we might run into in the dark if we aren't careful."

As the sun got lower in the sky Ranma noticed a dark pillar of smoke which stood out against the orange of the twilight, "Guys," Ranma said only to be cut off by Sai.

"I see it too, They must have set up a camp." As the group neared the clearing that the smoke was coming to Ranma and Ryoga gestured for Sai to come to them.

As the Root member neared the two Jonin he nodded toward the clearing, "It would seem they set up proximity alerts," Ranma nodded he had noticed the string with the bell as well. The pig-tailed Jonin looked up towards the sky, "Once it gets a little darker Ryoga will go a ways away and begin to tunnel under them, while You and I set off the explosive tags they've hidden a little ways back to make them think we fell for the "avoid the obvious trap only to get hit by the secondary one trick" once you hear the explosions Ryoga we'll need you to wait until you hear us engage then attack from below," Ranma paused, "Sai you'll send out some of your super beast Lion's to attack from the directions we aren't attacking from as well."

Sai nodded, "What do we do if they are expecting us?"

Ranma chuckled, "Wing it," he turned towards Ryoga, "Don't get lost ok."

* * *

Hidan sighed, "The perimeter is completely set up and the circle is on the ground," he turned towards Kakazu, "No thanks to you, stupid bastard." Suddenly from two different directions the explosive tags he'd set up went off, "How'd you know we'd have company?" he asked his partner only to get no reply.

Ranma burst out of the smoke and was preceded by several Shuriken all expertly aimed at Hidan's vital areas, "Not like he can't block 'em anyway," he thought as he watched Hidan notice the Kunai slightly late, Ranma watched in shock as the Shuriken embed themselves into the Akatsuki member's neck and chest. "What the hell?" He jumped continued to run forward past the still standing "corpse towards Kakazu only to feel his danger sense warn him about an attack from behind. He leapt over the swipe from the scythe that Hidan was carrying, landing nimbly on the bar he lashed out with a kick towards the man who flicked his wrists upward launching Ranma into the air, "His mistake," The Master of Anything Goes thought to himself as he gripped the weapon and used his momentum to cause both of them to go airborne. He delivered a rapid-fire barrage of punches into his opponent's face forcing him to slam into the ground, "That's a nice scythe ya got there mind if I borrow it?"

Hidan smiled the pain hurt so good that he almost forgot that he was busy killing some idiot, "My scythe is for killing heretics not helping them," He said completely unfazed by the damage that had been done, his nose already healed, "I will use it to draw out the blood of all who deny Jashin's glory, and you will be next." The missing-Nin quickly launched his attack, the Blade of his scythe missing Ranma by inches as Ranma easily dodged the attacks.

"Man, you're so slow I guess the only heretics you kill with that thing are turtles huh." Ranma said as he once again ducked under a swipe of the weapon this time getting in close and punching the man in the chest, "Fuck!" he thought as his fist connected with the shuriken that he had hit Hidan with at the start of the fight, causing the weapon to finish entering the fanatics body. The Akatsuki member laughed as he brought his hand down to his chest, running his finger along the part of the shuriken that hadn't fully entered the man's body he brought his finger up to his lips and licked it.

"Oh, that's sick!" Ranma said as he kicked Hidan away, the mercenary quickly flipped in mid-air and landed on his feet before reaching into his cloak and withdrawing a metal rod which he quickly extended into a spear, "What the hell is with his skin?" Ranma asked himself as he watched the man take on the appearance of a skeleton, his skin pitch black except for the white stripes on his ribs and skull, "and what the hell's he doing now?" Hidan was etching some sort of marking into the ground, he had drawn a circle and was now adding a triangle, Ranma watched as he stood in the circle and laughed.

"Now you will witness the true powers of Jashin!" The man yelled before stabbing himself in the arm, Ranma cried out as he felt an incredible pain in his arm, "What the hell was that? How'd he hurt me?" Ranma quickly ran full speed at Hidan moving faster than the mercenary could follow, "Not so fast," Hidan said as he bent down and stabbed himself in the Achilles tendon, Ranma stumbled and fell, rolling a few times before laying still, "What the hell?" He thought as his mind was filled with agony, "Only got one shot at this." He pushed himself up onto his good foot, the knee of his right foot planted in the ground.

Hidan began to laugh, "As long as I'm in this circle anything done to my body is done to you too, the only difference is I'm Immortal!" Ranma gasped, "So much for using the Yame-sen-ken to take off his head," He thought for a moment, "what can I do here?"

Suddenly the ground underneath Hidan's feet exploded outward, "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ranma heard Ryoga yelling as he came bursting out of the ground, delivering a massive uppercut to Hidan's head, "Good luck standing in the circle now buddy," Ranma yelled as he launched a Vacuum Blade at the Akatsuki member, cleanly separating his head from his body.

"Thank's Ryoga appreciate the help there," Ranma said as Ryoga approached, "it doesn't seem like I'll be able to help out any more in this fight, go see if Sai has it handled."

* * *

Sai grimaced as the heat of the inferno came right at him, he quickly jumped out of the way, and barely managed to avoid the water spear coming directly at him, "I've already stabbed him through the chest, I need to take down the rest of these masks."

"Damn it Hidan," Kakazu said before running towards his partner, "He was stopped in his tracks by Ryoga who barreled into him like a train, "You know he's dead right, his head got taken off." the lost boy said as he knocked the man onto his back.

Kakazu grimaced as he felt another one of his hearts being destroyed, "I can't help Hidan right now," He grabbed onto Ryoga's fist and flipped the shinobi over launching him towards where Sai was defending against the last three masks with the help of his super beast scrolls.

"Ah, Ryoga, It seems that in order to defeat him we will have to dispatch these masks as well." Ryoga nodded before launching a Shishi Hokodan at on of the floating mask things, it launched a fireball at the Green energy ball causing it to explode prematurely, Ryoga jumped out of the way as a concussive blast of air tore the ground up, Sai capitalized on Ryoga's distraction his super Beast Scroll unfurled and he quickly painted a large Bull in it, when he finished drawing it, the Bull came rushing off the page hitting Kakazu and impaled him on it's extra longhorns, "You know this is getting annoying." Kakazu thought to himself as he stabbed the bull with a Kunai, "I'll just go ahead and end it."

Ranma watched the battle going on from a distance, "It looks like they've got this one handled but just in case," He launched another vacuum blade at one of the floating masks, splitting it in half. "That oughta help em out a bit."

Kakazu grimace, "Damn it there goes my firepower."

Ryoga jumped over the high-pressure blast of water, "Shit if that hits me I'm screwed." He jumped to the side before launching a group of shuriken at the mask, which easily dodged the attack. Sai suddenly jumped over the mask, stabbing down with a kunai, and destroying it in the process. "Looks like we've got one more to go."

Kakazu was starting to panic, "No, I can't die here." He rushed at Ryoga, "I can't!"

Sai looked up at the last mask, quickly jumping to the side as the ground around him exploded, the air bullet taking a huge chunk of topsoil out.

Ryoga gasped as he saw the man he'd been fighting suddenly crumple to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut, "It looks like Sai did it," He turned towards Ranma, "Oh shit, Ranma's hurt!"

* * *

Naruto sighed as he rolled sat down on top of his apartment, "It's damn good to be back, to bad we couldn't take out Orochimaru though." After Sakura had joined the fight they had managed to hold of Orochimaru for a couple of minutes until Yamato had shown up at which point Orochimaru had summoned Manda which had made Team Kakashi retreat.

Sasuke looked over at Naruto, "There's always next time isn't there."

Sakura nodded enthusiastically, "We will definitely get him next time."

Kakashi Hatake was feeling much better, "Looks like I'll have to step up Naruto's training, I've got an idea that might help him because of his unique situation too, sadly Sasuke isn't going to like the fact that unless he comes up with a way to increase his strength quickly too he'll be left behind. It won't be long until I'm left behind either." He sighed no teacher wanted to be outshone by his students but all of them hoped it would happen one day.

* * *

Ranma smiled upon entering the village, Ryoga had been carrying him since they left the battleground, "Take me to the hospital Ryoga it'll be a couple of days before I can put my full weight on my leg again."

Ryoga chuckled to himself, "Better hurry up and get better Saotome or I'll surpass you."

Ranma laughed, "As if that'll happen pig brain," But on the inside he was worried, "If I'd been alone on that mission I'd be dead, me and Ryoga both need to step up our training, maybe come up with some new techniques."

* * *

Hidan sighed, "Damn Kakazu can't even beat a couple of weaklings." He was just ahead until someone put him back on his body.

Zetsu phased up from under Hidan, "I finally found you, Come let's get you patched up."


	20. Chapter 19

_**A/n: Sorry Guys, this chapter is really short but I've been dragging my feet about it and this particular chapter isn't going anywhere, I've been working and doing college stuff you know how Dec is for college folks. I promise I'm going to start updating a bit more regularly soon, I'm going to increase the chapter length and work on my writing style so that's going to be a thing I guess**_

Chapter 19: Ryoga's Lost! Who'd Have Guessed!

Ranma looked around the hospital room he had been assigned, "Is it going to be that long?"

The medical ninja glanced at his papers, "It seems like it, you heal at a higher rate than most but it isn't unseen," he flipped through several of his pages, "It seems that the wounds are purely internal, whatever this guy did to you you're lucky he didn't aim somewhere more important."

"Two weeks of sitting around in this tiny room is going to drive me crazy."

* * *

Ryoga Hibiki sat in the Hokage's office nervously scratching the back of his head, "Yes, I'm sure he was dead, Ranma took his head off."

Tsunade shook her head, "The recovery team found the body of Kakuzu, but his was the only body found at the scene."

Ryoga shivered as an image of Hidan's headless body shambling away carrying his head in his arms, "I guess his claims that he was immortal weren't a load of crap."

Tsunade looked down at her paper, "We need someone to investigate this Jashin, I'm sending you and Sai to investigate, Hidan is a missing-nin from Yugakure and I have already been given permission to look into the matter by their leaders and I will be assigning a temporary replacement for Ranma while he is out of action."

Ryoga glanced over at Sai who's face remained as impassive as ever, "I understand Lady Tsunade."

* * *

Ryoga looked up into the sky, the light of the sun warmed his face as he tried to figure out which direction his Apartment was, "I know!" He turned to his left and set off. Several minutes later he found himself at Ichiraku Ramen, "Hey Old Man, you haven't seen Sasuke or anyone lately have you?" The lost-boy asked hoping to be able to find a guide somewhere.

Ichiraku shook his head, "The only Shinobi I've seen lately are Might Gai and his team, but they left a while back."

Ryoga nodded, "just my luck," He turned and walked away.

* * *

Sai was waiting at the gate of the village, "Ryoga may be a little late, he has trouble finding his way from time to time," the ex-roots member said apologetically to the Kunoichi that was restlessly shuffling from foot to foot.

"I hope he doesn't take much longer." Ino Yamanake said her patience wearing thin.

Sai let out a sigh, "I agree, if he takes another half hour we will have to leave him." he really hoped that Ryoga didn't take too long, the looks Ino had been giving him since they had met were beginning to make him uncomfortable.

* * *

Ryoga rolled out of the way of coming downpour barely managing to make it into the cave before the water caught up to him. "Where the hell am I?" He looked around himself before rummaging through his bag for a while and pulling out his umbrella. He opened the weighted umbrella before stepping outside into the downpour, "I've gotta get back to the village before Sai leaves without me." He looked around for a while before finally setting off in the direction he figured was the right one.

"Where's he going?" The Anbu member thought to himself as he passed over Ryoga on his way back to Konoha, "Must be important if they're sending a special-Jonin alone." He continued heading towards the village, going the opposite direction that Ryoga was.

* * *

Sai and Ino had finally left the village after waiting for Ryoga another thirty minutes, they had only been walking for about twenty more minutes after that when the rain started forcing them to seek shelter under the trees. Ino was mortified, "My hair is a mess now," She thought to herself as she sat under a particularly tall tree, "I can't believe it just started pouring like that."

Sai looked at his temporary partner, the girl was sitting on the ground and looked as if she was upset, "It seems that normal people don't like getting wet," the Shinobi thought to himself before he turned to the girl and smiled, "This weather was unexpected was it not?" he asked. She looked up at him and smiled back, her cheeks turning slightly red, "I wish I'd packed something more suited to the weather that's for sure, and now my hair is frizzy too."

Sai remembered the book he had checked out from the library saying that people enjoyed being complimented, especially on their appearance, so he quickly replied, "I think you are rather pleasing to look at," when he noticed that her face turned a darker shade of red after his comment he began to panic, "That is to say that the current state of your hair doesn't detract from your overall allure." He began to stutter as he tried to rectify the situation.

Suddenly she burst out laughing, "You don't talk to girls often do you?"

Sai deflated, "I haven't interacted with men or women often, was it that obvious?"

Ino smiled at him, "You're doing fine so far." She looked up as the rain began to ease, "It looks like we're good to set out again."

* * *

Ryoga smiled as the rain finally ended, "Looks like I can put this away," he looked around as he folded his umbrella and saw that the forest was coming to an end and was becoming plains. Suddenly a branch fell from a nearby tree landing in a puddle and splashing the lost-boy, leaving behind a little black piglet. P-chan let out an indignant squeal as he looked around himself. He let out a harumph and began to drag his clothing off the path.


End file.
